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RICK AND RUDDY SERIES 
By HOWARD R. GARIS 

RICK AND RUDDY 
A Boy and His Dog 

RICK AND RUDDY IN CAMP 

Adventures of a Boy and His Dog 

RICK AND RUDDY AFLOAT 
Cruise of a Boy and His Dog 

RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 
A Boy and His Dog at Lost River 

RICK AND RUDDY ON THE TRAIL 
A Boy and His Dog Hiking 











“We really found Lost River,” said Rick, “And we know 
how to turn it back again.” 


Paye 229 




RICK AND RUDDY 
OUT WEST 


BY 

HOWARD R 


5 GARIS 


Author of “Rick and Ruddy,” “Rick and Ruddy 
Afloat,” “Rick and Ruddy in Camp,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED BY 

W. B. KING 



1923 

MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY 
SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS 



Copyright, 1923, by 
MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY 
Publishers 

Rick and Ruddy Out West 


c- 


©C1A752861 

Bradley Quality Boobs 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA 

AUG 29 1923 







CONTENTS 


CHAPTER pAQBJ 

I. A Mysterious Message. 1 

II. Uncle Tod Is Missing.11 

III. The Telegram.22 

IV. Off for the West. 36 

V. Buddy Gives Warning.45 

VI. A Wild Ride. 56 

VII. The Lonely Cabin.68 

VIII. “Gone!”.78 

IX. The Pursuit.86 

X. A Strange Discovery. 96 

XI. Uncle Tod’s Camp. 107 

XII. Lost River. 117 

XIII. The Dry Mine. 126 

XIV. Into the Cavern. 138 

XV. Uncle Tod Gives Up. 150 

XVI. Rick Draws Something .... 159 

XVII. On Their Own. 167 

XVIII. Into the Dark. 176 














CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XIX. 

Mysterious Noises . 

PAQB 

... 186 

XX. 

A Strange Camp . 

... 196 

XXI. 

Scouting Around . 

... 203 

XXII. 

Solving the Secret . 

... 212 

XXIII. 

Carrying the Good News . 

... 220 

XXIV. 

Turning Lost River Back . 

... 228 

XXV. 

The Ruddy Mine . 

... 240 





RICK AND RUDDY 
OUT WEST 


CHAPTER I 

A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE 

U T I THAT’S your hurry, Rick! Going to 

VV afire!” 

Chot Benson called to his chum Rick 
Dalton who was racing down the Belemere 
street with every appearance of being in great 
haste. He was not going to a train—that was 
evident, for he was hatless and coatless—and 
though Rick and the other boys of the seacoast 
town often went without these pieces of wear¬ 
ing apparel, still they did not start train jour¬ 
neys in this style. 

And there was no fire—Chot was sure of that, 
for he would have heard the whistle of the 
pumping engine at the water tank had there 
been a blaze. 




1 



2 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


Still Rick Dalton was in a hurry. 

i ‘ Wait a minute !” called Chot. 

“Can’t!” flung back Rick, over his shoulder. 
“I’ve got to see about Ruddy!” 

“Whew!” whistled Chot. 

This explained it then. Rick’s beloved dog, 
Ruddy the red setter that had been saved from 
the sea—Ruddy was in danger. No wonder 
Rick ran. But what threatened Ruddy ? Chot 
was as anxious to know as any boy could be 
who had a chum with a dog. 

“I’m coming!” cried Chot and then, he too, 
coatless and hatless, sped down the street after 
Rick. 

It looked like a race, and in fact it was a sort 
of race, for Rick was urged on by a certain 
anxiety and Chot wanted to overtake his chum 
to find out what it was all about. For a time 
the same distance separated the two lads—Rick 
in the lead. And then, because Rick had been 
running longer than had Chot, the latter began 
to forge ahead and soon he was at his chum’s 
side. 

“Hey, slow up, can’t you?” panted Chot. 
“What’s the rush? There isn’t a fire; is 
there ?’’ 


A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE 


3 


“No,” came in rather gasping tones from 
Rick, “but I just heard that a dog’s been shot 
and I was afraid it might be mine.” 

“Who’d shoot Ruddy?” 

“I don’t know—nobody—I hope. But I was 
afraid—” 

“Who told you?” demanded Chot, jog- 
trotting with his chum at a little slower pace 
now, as their laboring hearts and increased 
blood pressure, together with a shortening of 
breaths began to cause pains in their sides. 

“Tom Martin,” was the answer. “He says 
somebody’s going around killing dogs, and he 
says he heard shooting down near my house. 
It might be Ruddy.” 

“I don’t believe so,” spoke Chot. “I been 
around here all morning and there wasn’t any 
shooting.” 

4 ‘ Might have been a silencer on the gun. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ Sure—but— ’ ’ 

Chot clapped a hand to his left side, a look 
of pain came over his face and he stopped 
running. 

“What’s the matter?” asked Rick, pausing. 

“Got a fierce pain in my side. I got to turn 
over a stone. Go on, I’ll catch up to you.” 



4 


KICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“I got a pain, too. We’ll each turn over a 
stone.” 

The boys bent down very low and slowly 
turned over the nearest stones they could reach. 
Then they gradually straightened up again. 

‘ 4 Mine’s gone,” remarked Chot. 

“So’s mine,” said his chum. “Funny, ain’t 
it, how that makes a pain go away.” 

1 ‘Sure is,” agreed Chot. 

They ran on again after performing this 
boyish rite, which, doubtless, you also have 
practiced, perhaps with some variation, as I 
have myself. I think that the turning of the 
stone, or whatever you might have done when 
you had a pain in your side caused by running, 
did not cause the sharp spasm to pass away. 
Rather, I think, the stooping over, and so com¬ 
pressing the muscles and the stomach organs, 
was what did it. But I may be wrong at that. 

Anyhow, Chot and Rick, relieved of the stress 
of the side-pains, ran on, turning the corner from 
the main street and hurrying along the more 
quiet thoroughfare that led to Rick’s house. 

“Why didn’t you take Ruddy with you!” 
asked Chot, for seldom was Rick seen without 
his setter companion. 


A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE 


5 


‘ ‘ He wasn ’t around when I started off, and I 
was in a hurry. I only hope he isn’t shot! ’ ’ 

44 So do I!” murmured Chot. 

The fear that had been in their hearts passed 
away as they raced into the yard and saw, under 
an old and gnarled apple tree, a man and a 
dog. 

“There’s Ruddy now!” cried Chot. 

“Yes,” said Rick with a sigh of relief. “As 
long as he’s with Uncle Tod he’s all right. I 
guess maybe it was a false alarm.” 

Ruddy, who had been asleep with his head 
between his extended fore paws at the feet of 
Uncle Tod (who was also, apparently, slumber¬ 
ing) awakened with a start as the boys entered 
the yard. The dog sprang up, looked for a 
moment rather doubtfully at the lads, and then, 
as he caught their familiar odors (for a dog’s 
scent is much better than his sight) Ruddy 
sprang forward with delighted barks and 
frantic waggings of his tail. 

This, of course awakened Uncle Tod who 
sprang from the bench under the gnarled apple 
tree, rubbed his dazed eyes and cried: 

“Has it come? Has it come?” 

“Has what come, Uncle Tod?” asked Rick 


6 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


in surprise as he tried to keep Ruddy from 
excitedly climbing all over him. 

“Oh—nothing—nothing,’’ hastily answered 
the elderly man who appeared a bit confused 
at having asked the question. “I guess I was 
dreaming—yes, I must have been dreaming. 
But what’s the rush?” he asked, just as Chot 
had inquired. 

“Rick thought Ruddy had been shot,” 
chuckled his boy chum. “But he’s pretty 
lively for a shot dog; aren’t you, Ruddy old 
fellow?” and he fondled the dog’s drooping 
ears. 

“Ruddy shot? What do you mean?” de¬ 
manded Uncle Tod. “Have those scoun¬ 
drels— ” 

Then he checked himself and seemed rather 
sorry he had been so excited. 

“Ruddy’s all right,” he went on more calmly. 
“He and I have been asleep here under the tree. 
But what do you mean, Rick—shot?” 

“Oh, there’s a rumor down town that a lot 
of dogs have been shot lately,” said Rick, throw¬ 
ing himself down on the grass, an example 
followed by Chot, while Ruddy crouched beside 
them. “Tom Martin said he heard shots 


A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE 


7 


around this way, and I thought maybe they 
were after Ruddy.’’ 

“Who?” asked Uncle Tod, and Chot won¬ 
dered if the man was still thinking of 4 'scoun¬ 
drels,” and who these "scoundrels” might 
be. "Who would shoot Ruddy?” asked Uncle 
Tod. 

"I don’t know,” Rick confessed. "Might 
be the dog catchers are starting in, now that 
summer is here, but I haven’t seen any warning 
in the paper about keeping dogs tied up. Any¬ 
how, you’re all right; aren’t you Ruddy?” 

Again there was a wild demonstration of 
affection on the part of the red setter and Rick 
had to hide his face in his arms to keep it away 
from the dog’s eager tongue. 

"Oh,” murmured Uncle Tod, "I didn’t know 
but ^hat it might be—I guess you got a bit 
excited; didn’t you?” he asked, and both Chot 
and Rick noticed the sudden manner in which 
he changed what he was going to say. Clearly 
Uncle Tod had been startled when the boys 
rushed into the yard, and his thoughts must 
have been along the line of shooting, though 
whether it concerned a dog or himself was not 
quite clear. 



8 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Yes, I was excited/’ admitted Rick with a 
laugh. “But I’m all right now. Oh, quit it, 
Ruddy!” he cried as the dog again sought to 
use his tongue as a wash rag. “Just because I 
don’t want you shot isn’t a sign that I want you 
to lap me all over! Quit! ” he yelled, laughing, 
and he rolled over and over in the grass to get 
away from the loving demonstrations of his 
four-footed chum. Not very successfully, how¬ 
ever, did Rick escape, for Ruddy followed, and 
he did not cease until Rick tossed a stick which 
the dog rushed down to the end of the yard to 
retrieve. 

“You didn’t hear any shooting; did you, 
Uncle Tod?” asked Rick, when Ruddy, panting 
and with his red tongue hanging out over his 
white teeth, was resting on the grass more 
quietly between the two boys. 

“Shooting? No, I didn’t hear any. I was 
asleep until you woke me up.” 

Afterward Rick and Chot wondered why 
Uncle Tod had asked such queer questions 
about “scoundrels.” 

“Do they use dog-catchers here in Bele- 
mere?” went on Uncle Tod, for he was some¬ 
what of a stranger in the seacoast town. 


A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE 


9 


“Sometimes,” answered Rick, “but they 
generally give you notice when they’re going 
to start to round up the homeless ones. Lots 
of times dogs with good homes get taken in, or 
killed by the catchers, and that’s why I was 
worried about Ruddy.” 

“Um,” murmured Uncle Tod, which might 
mean anything or nothing. “Well, I guess 
everything’s all right. I’d better go in and see 
if your mother wants me to take any mail for 
her, Rick. I’m going to the post office and—” 

Uncle Tod suddenly ceased speaking, and 
Ruddy and the boys started up, the dog with 
a menacing growl, as something was thrown 
over the rear fence of the yard, landing with 
a thud on the ground not far from the apple 
tree. 

“Hello!” exclaimed Rick. “What’s that?” 

It was a green object, tied with cord into a 
round shape and it rolled toward Ruddy after 
it landed. The dog sprang toward it. 

“Look out! Maybe it’s poisoned meat!” 
exclaimed Chot. 

Rick caught hold of his dog’s collar and 
pulled him back. Uncle Tod looked at the 
object for a moment and then picked it up. 


10 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

The boys could now see it was a cabbage leaf 
wrapped about something and tied with string. 

“Somebody’s playing a joke!” laughed Rick. 

“One of the fellows,” was Chot’s opinion. 
“Tom Martin, I reckon.” 

Uncle Tod slowly opened the cabbage leaf. 
There dropped from it a stone and another 
small object which Rick picked up. 

“It’s a bullet!” he cried. “What does this 
mean ?’ 1 

There was a strange look on Uncle Tod’s 
face. 

“Let me see that!” he cried. 

Rick handed over the bullet—it was not a 
cartridge, but a leaden missile from one and as 
he passed it to Uncle Tod the boy noticed some 
peculiar marks on the bit of lead. 

“Whew!” whistled Uncle Tod. “It came— 
sooner than I expected,” and then, gathering 
up the parts of the mysterious message—the 
string, cabbage leaf, stone and bullet, he hur¬ 
ried into the house. 



CHAPTER II 


UNCLE TOD IS MISSING 

R ICK and Chot gazed curiously at one an¬ 
other, and even Ruddy seemed a bit 
puzzled by the strange behavior of Uncle Tod. 
The three friends—for surely the dog was in 
that class—looked at the retreating form of the 
man. 

“What do you know about that?” asked Chot. 
“Doyous’pose—” 

“I don’t know what to suppose,” answered 
Rick, not giving his chum a chance to completely 
form his question. “It’s mighty queer. 
Maybe we’d better—” 

But he, in turn, was interrupted by shouts 
just beyond the same rear fence over which the 
mysterious message had been tossed. 

‘ ‘ Ho, Rick! ’ ’ called the voices of several boys. 
“Come on for a swim, Rick!” 

Ruddy barked his answer—he was always 
ready for fun. 


ii 




12 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Hey, Whistle Breeches!” shouted Chot, 
recognizing the tones of a lad who had been 
given this nickname because, once upon a time, 
he wore corduroy trousers, the ribbed cloth 
producing a peculiar whistling sound as the 
boy’s legs rubbed together. 

“Oh, you Chot!” came the answering hail. 
“Let’s go swimming!” 

“Sure!” answered Rick. 

They were over the fence in a scramble and 
bound. Ruddy following in a magnificent clean 
leap, and, a few minutes later the lads, half a 
dozen of them, were hurrying toward the inlet 
where the best swimming was to be had, away 
from the pounding surf of the salty sea. 

With the prospect of invigorating sport ahead 
of them, in the water, Chot and Rick forgot, for 
a time, the incidents of the last half hour—the 
unfounded fear of harm to Ruddy and the toss¬ 
ing over the fence of the mysterious message— 
something like the rattle-snake skin of powder 
and arrows, that, in Colonial days, was thrown 
into the blockhouse of the early settlers to in¬ 
dicate that the Indians intended to open war 
again. 

“Last one in’s a rotten egg!” 


UNCLE TOD IS MISSING 


13 


4 ‘Whoopee—that doesn’t mean me!” 

“No fair goin’ in with yonr clothes on!” 

“That’s right—every fellow’s got to put on 
trunks! ’ ’ 

These shouts, and this decision, rendered 
while running at full speed, brought the lads 
and the dog to the sandy beach of the inlet, 
where, in a secluded spot, the lads quickly un¬ 
dressed and slipped on old trunks—some 
donned parts of bathing suits and others sec¬ 
tions of cut-down trousers. 

“I’m no egg!” declared Rick, as he dived in, 
disappearing beneath the blue, salt water. 

“Nor I,” added Chot, as he bubbled down 
beside his chum, while Ruddy splashed and 
barked along the shore edge in a frantic ecstasy 
of delight and the other boys, eager to escape 
the laggard designation, followed. 

“Tom and George are both rotten eggs!” 
was the decision of the majority as they arose, 
snorting from the water, flipping the drops 
from their eyes with quick shakes of their 
heads. These two lads, the last ones in, 
struck the water at the same time. 

“I don’t care, as long as it’s a tie,” laughed 
George, and then the water fun began. It was 




14 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


only one form of amusement for Rick and 
Ruddy, those inseparable boy and dog chums. 
Though living at the seashore, as he did, Rick 
perhaps found more enjoyment in the water 
than he did on land. 

Some of his adventures, and those of his 
four-footed chum, I have set down for you in 
the first book of this series, called “Rick and 
Ruddy,’’ telling how Ruddy came to his young 
master literally out of the sea. For Ruddy 
was swept overboard from a vessel in a storm, 
and was rescued by a coast-guard, the dog later 
adopting Rick as Rick adopted Ruddy. 

The boy and dog grew, loving each other 
more and more. They v[ent to camp together, 
as related in the book of that name, and their 
last experiences had been while cruising with 
Uncle Tod in the Sallie, told of in the volume 
“Rick and Ruddy Afloat.” 

Uncle Tod, after having established his salt 
industry, had come to stay for a while with 
Rick’s mother, whose uncle he was, rather than 
Rick’s. But Rick claimed him as his own; and 
so did Chot and Ruddy, the dog dividing his 
affections fairly among all three. 

“Well, fellows, this is my last dive,” 


an- 


UNCLE TOD IS MISSING 


15 


nounced Tom Martin, as he stood on an old 
pile and poised. 

“Same here,” echoed Rick. “Stump yon to 
do it backward,” he added. 

“Right!” answered Tom, and, turning, he 
went with a clean-cut dive into the water that 
way, a feat matched by Rick. None of the other 
boys would dare this, though it was compara¬ 
tively simple. Then, one after another, they 
climbed out, raced around in the sun a bit to 
dry and donned their regulation clothes, which 
did not take much longer to put on than had 
their swimming trunks. The boys believed in 
simplicity—especially on hot days. 

“What you going to do to-night, Chot?” 
asked Rick, as they were about to part, for their 
homes were on different streets. 

4 4 Oh, nawthin ’. What you going to do ? ” 

4 4 Same thing I guess, ’’ chuckled Rick. 4 4 Can 
you come on over?” 

4 4 Sure! No lessons now. ’ * 

44 Oh, boy! That’s right—no lessons now! 
It’s grand—what?” 

44 Best ever! All right, I’ll come over. 
Maybe your uncle’ll tell us something about 
that cabbage leaf and bullet. ’ ’ 



16 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

4 ‘And the stone, too,” added Rick. “I 
wonder what it was! ’ ’ 

44 Maybe some of the fellows did it,” sug¬ 
gested Chot. “I meant to ask ’em if they 
chucked it over the fence but I forgot.” 

4 4 1 don’t believe they did, or we ’d have heard 
something,” said Rick. 44 Anyhow, if they had, 
Uncle Tod wouldn’t have acted that way. He 
seemed real worried.” 

44 Scared I’d call it,” was Chot’s opinion. 

4 4 Well, maybe he seemed scared, but he really 
wasn’t,” said Rick, in defence of his uncle. 

4 4 You ought to have seen him the time I was 
with him last summer. ’ ’ 

4 4 You mean when you went with him on the 
8 oilier 9 

4 4 Yes, when he had that fight with Bucktooth 
Slither, and Johnnie Green and the Indians 
beat the war drum. Then I thought Uncle Tod 
was frightened, but it was only put on. He 
had a reason for it.” 

“Then you think he has a reason now!” 
asked Chot. 

44 I reckon so. But still it’s kind of funny— 
that marked bullet and the stone and the 


UNCLE TOD IS MISSING 


17 


cabbage leaf. But come on over to-night and 
maybe he’ll tell us about it.” 

“I will,” promised Chot. “So long!” 

“So long! See you later! Here, Ruddy, 
you let that cat alone!” and Rick shouted at 
his dog who showed a desire to chase a lone 
feline up a tree. 

Disappointed, Ruddy turned back to join his 
master and soon boy and setter were on their 
way home in the pleasant afternoon sunshine. 

“Hope they have a good supper,” murmured 
Rick to himself as he trudged along. “I’m as 
hungry as a dogfish! ’ ’ 

His exercise in the salt water, the tang of the 
air that blew in from the sea and his general 
hungry condition at this time of day combined 
to make Rick aware of a gone feeling in his 
stomach. 

“Hello, Mazie!” he called to his sister as he 
entered the kitchen and saw her busy setting 
the table. “Give us a cookie; will you!” he 
begged. 

“You shouldn’t eat just before supper,” 
objected Mazie. 

“Um!” mumbled Rick, for he had reached 


18 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


over and taken a cookie from a plate tilled with 
them. “You heard Ma say that!” He tossed 
the expectant Ruddy part of a cookie, took an¬ 
other one himself and rushed out again as 
Mazie, with uplifted broom, started after him. 

“You can’t spoil my appetite with one cookie, 
nor with half a dozen,” challenged Rick as he 
went to his room to “slick up,” before the 
coming meal. The faithful dog followed. 

“Ruddy, I’ll have to be extra careful of you, 
now that the dog-days are coming,” said the 
boy aloud, talking to his pet as he often did, for 
Ruddy seemed to understand. “I’ll have to 
keep you on a leash or leave you chained up 
when I go off without you. Can’t take any 
chances these dog-days.” 

Rick, like many other boys and grown 
persons, also, had a mistaken notion about the 
so-called “dog-days.” Some of you may have 
the idea that “dog-days,” are those hot days 
in summer when dogs are most likely to go mad, 
are apt to be inflicted with rabies, when their 
bite may cause human beings, or other animals 
attacked by a dog so suffering, to become in¬ 
fected with the germs. 

It is true that the “dog-days” come in hot 


UNCLE TOD IS MISSING 


19 


weather, from the beginning of July to the 
middle of August, but they are not so named 
because dogs go mad on those days. The ‘ 4 dog- 
days ” are so called because during that period, 
from the beginning of July to the middle of 
August, Sirius, the Dog-Star, in the constella¬ 
tion Canis Major as its Latin name is, rises 
and sets with the sun. That is, the sun and the 
Dog-Star keep pace, rising and setting to¬ 
gether. 

That ’s why those days are called “dog-days,” 
and not because dogs suffer from the heat and 
go mad then. It is true that more dogs go mad 
in summer than in winter, but that is only be¬ 
cause of the heat—since all germs increase with 
heat and moisture—and not because the days 
have been called after a dog. 

But Rick, like many other lads, had this 
notion and he began to worry lest some of the 
town officials, thinking of the danger of mad 
dogs, might try to get rid of Ruddy. 

“I’ll have to look after you pretty sharp,” 
he said to the dog. 

Ruddy wagged his tail, for he knew he was 
being talked about, and tried to get up on the 
bed to lick Rick’s face with his tongue, but was 



20 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


sternly though laughingly repulsed. For Mrs. 
Dalton had a strict rule about Ruddy keeping 
off the beds. 

“Oh, Rick! Supper!” called his mother a 
little later, when he was trying to make a re¬ 
fractory lock of hair, or his “cowlick,’’ remain 
where he plastered it down. 

“All right!” he answered. 

“And call Uncle Tod,” she went on. “He’s 
in his room.” 

“All right,” answered Rick again. 

He made his salt-encrusted hair as neat as 
possible, and walked down the hall to his uncle’s 
room. He knocked on the door but, getting 
no answer, pushed it open and looked in. 

Uncle Tod was not there, a fact which Rick 
soon discovered. He called the information 
down the back stairs to his mother. 

“Why he must be there,” she said. “He 
went up a little while ago. ’ ’ 

“Well, he isn’t here now,” declared Rick. 
And then, as he looked around the bedroom— 
clean and neat after the skipper’s seafaring 
notions—Rick discovered something on the 
bureau. It was an envelope weighted down 
with a bit of rock. 


UNCLE TOD IS MISSING 


21 


“Are you sure he isn’t up there, Rick?” 
“Sure! he’s gone and he’s left a note for you! 
I ’ll bring it down! ’ ’ 

With a curious feeling that something strange 
and mysterious had happened, Rick picked up 
the missive and started down stairs. 


CHAPTER III 


THE TELEGRAM 

R ICK’S mother was waiting for him. With 
a wondering look on her face she took the 
letter he held out to her, and the boy watched 
her read it. 

‘‘This is very strange,” she murmured as 

she glanced through the short note. 

“Mother, what is it?” asked Rick. “Has 

anything happened—anything to Uncle Tod!” 

“Nothing serious I think—at least not yet,” 

added Mrs. Dalton as once more she glanced 

over the letter. “He’s just gone, that’s all. 

He left in a hurry, too. I didn’t notice him go. 

I wonder if he took any of his things with him?” 

“I didn’t look to see,” the bov answered. 

“I just hurried down when I saw the letter. 

Say, what has happened, anyhow?” 

“You may read the letter,” offered Mrs. 

Dalton as she started up stairs toward Uncle 

Tod’s room. “Don’t let the potatoes burn,” 

she called to Mazie who was in the kitchen. 

22 


THE TELEGRAM 


23 


“All right, Mother, I won’t,” was the answer. 
“But what’s the matter? Why don’t you all 
come to supper? Here’s daddy,” she went on, 
as she caught a glimpse of her father coming in 
the front gate. 

“I hope he can puzzle this out,” murmured 
Mrs. Dalton, as she entered Uncle Tod’s room, 
while Bick remained in the hall outside to read 
the letter left by the man whose strange actions, 
following that mysterious message, had created 
a worry in the family. 

The letter that Uncle Tod had left for his 
niece was short. Rick read this: 

“Dear Schotzie: I’m sorry I have to leave this 
way, but it has to be. If any one inquires for me 
don’t tell them anything. Don’t even tell them I’m 
gone! You will soon receive a telegram. Just be¬ 
lieve in me. 

Your affectionate 
Uncle Tod.” 

“He took some of his things,” declared Mrs. 
Dalton, after a hasty look through the closet. 
“He must be going to stay for a while.” 

“But where has he gone?” asked Rick. 

“You know about as much as I do,” his 


24 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


mother replied. “I never was more surprised 
in all my life! I can’t understand it. Oh, 
what’s this?” she exclaimed as something fell 
with a thud from the top of a closet shelf where 
Uncle Tod kept his clean shirts—some of which 
he had taken with him. “What is it?” she 
repeated, and she stepped back from a green 
object that had rolled to the middle of the floor. 
“Is it a rat, Rick?” 

“No, it isn’t a rat,” the boy answered with 
a laugh. “It’s a cabbage leaf and rolled up in 
it is a rock and a bullet, and—” 

“Oh, Rick, a bullet—” 

“Don’t be afraid, Mother, it’s just the lead 
part, and can’t go off. See.” 

He opened the now wilted cabbage leaf and 
showed the curious rock, which, as he now 
noticed, had some shining bits of metal im¬ 
bedded in it. He took the lead bullet in his 
hand and held it out to show his mother it was 
harmless for it was out of the explosive car¬ 
tridge shell. 

“But what does it mean? ” asked Mrs. Dalton. 

“It’s the message Uncle Tod got over the 
fence to-day,” said Rick. 

“A message? Over the fence? Why—” 




“But what does it mean?” asked Mrs. Dalton 








c 




* 



















\ 





























* 
















THE TELEGRAM 


25 


“Yes. It was thrown over soon after I ran 
homfc because I was afraid the dog-catchers 
were out again and might get Ruddy. Uncle 
Tod didn’t say what it meant—” 

“I don’t see that it can mean anything 
sensible—just a cabbage leaf and a stone,” 
interrupted Mrs. Dalton. 

“Oh, it means something!” insisted Rick. 
“If you’d ever read any Indian stories—” 

‘ ‘ Nonsense! ’ ’ she laughed. “ It’s my opinion 
Uncle Tod is playing a joke on all of us.” 

“No, sir!” exclaimed Rick. “If you had 
seen his face—” 

“Say, what’s going on up there?” called 
the voice of Mr. Dalton from the lower hall. 
“It’s too early to be hiding Christmas pres¬ 
ents. What are you doing? I’d like my sup¬ 
per ! ’ ’ 

“Oh, Dick!” exclaimed his wife. “Uncle 
Tod is gone! ’ ’ 

“Gone!” there was a note of alarm in Mr. 
Dalton’s voice. 

“I mean he’s gone away, and he didn’t say 
where, and he doesn’t want it known and he 
got such a queer message—” 

“I’ll show it to you,” broke in Rick, racing 





26 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


down the stairs with the cabbage leaf, the rock 
and the bullet. 

“Hum!” mused Mr. Dalton when he had 
looked at them. ‘ ‘ Some of Uncle Tod ’s jokes! ’’ 

“No, I think not,” was Mrs. Dalton’s opinion. 
“Here’s a letter he left.” 

Mr Dalton whistled softly when he had read 
this. 

“Tell me all about it,” he suggested. “We 
can talk while we eat supper.” And when the 
story was told him, from the time of Rick’s 
hasty run home in alarm over Ruddy, to the 
discovery that Uncle Tod had secretly dis¬ 
appeared, Mr. Dalton agreed that it was rather 
puzzling. 

“Well, I take it that the scare about the 
possibility over Ruddy being shot, poisoned 
or stolen away has nothing to do with Uncle 
Tod’s going,” said Rick’s father. “How about 
it?” 

“Ruddy is all right, and the dog catchers 
haven’t been around,” answered Rick. “That 
was a false alarm of Tom’s.” 

“Then as to this ‘message,’ as Rick calls it,” 
went on Mr. Dalton, turning over the piece of 
rock, “we have here a bit of copper ore.” 


THE TELEGRAM 


27 


“Is that what it is?” asked Rick. 

“That's what it is—copper ore. It didn’t 
come from around here unless it came on a 
railroad train as part of a shipment, and I 
don’t believe that could have happened for 
there are no smelters in this locality. So much 
for that.” 

“The cabbage leaf doesn’t tell much,” said 
Mazie. “But it’s awfully interesting—quite 
hectic , I should say.” 

“ Hectic! Where do you get that word?” 
laughed Rick. 

“All the girls at school say it,” answered 
Mazie with just the least up-tilting of her nose, 
for Mazie was growing fast. 

“If you mean 4 hot’ why don’t you say so?” 
demanded her brother. 

“Hectic is a much nicer word than hot,” 
declared Mazie, “and our teacher said we 
should try to increase our vo—vo—vocabu¬ 
lary. ’ ’ 

“Well, you’re doing it all right!” chuckled 
Rick. ‘ ‘ Anyhow the cabbage leaf doesn’t mean 
anything; does it, Dad?” 

“Unless it’s meant for part of an Indian sign 
message as you at first suggested, Rick. ’ ’ 


28 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

“That’s what I thought,” the boy said. 
“You know Uncle Tod knows a lot about 
Indians. I don’t mean those tame ones up at 
his salt mines,” he added. “Indians, like old 
Johnnie Green, with his 4 kickum hard—two 
bits,’ wouldn’t send such a mysterious message 
as this.” 

“ No, I think not, ’ ’ agreed Mr. Dalton. 4 4 Be¬ 
sides, everything at Uncle Tod’s salt mine is 
progressing quietly, since he got rid of his 
rascally partner Slither. And, as a matter of 
fact, Uncle Tod has sold most of his salt mine 
stock, just retaining a small block. So I think 
Johnnie Green and his Indians had nothing to 
do with this.” 

44 But what does it mean?” asked Mrs. 
Dalton. “I’m beginning to get worried.” 

44 It’s great!” exclaimed Rick. 44 It’s like a 
detective story! I’m going to see if we fellows 
can’t puzzle it out.” 

44 No, you mustn’t!” said his mother. 

44 Why not?” 

For answer she held up the letter Uncle Tod 
had left. 

44 Oh, yes, he said to keep it secret; didn’t he,” 


THE TELEGRAM 


29 


remarked Rick. “ All right, I will. Well, we’ll 
have to pass up the cabbage. But there’s the 
bullet,” and he pointed to where it lay on the 
table. 

“Yes,” said Mr. Dalton, “there’s the bullet. 
Get me my magnifying glass from my desk, 
will you please, Mazie?” he asked his daugh¬ 
ter. And when the powerful lens was brought, 
Mr. Dalton, under it, studied the leaden mis¬ 
sile. 

“There are some letters scratched on this,” 
he said, after a while. “There’s a c and an o. 
Wait, I’ll write them down as they appear.” 

On a piece of paper he set the letters down in 
this fashion 

C 

M E 

O 

“What do they mean?” asked Mazie, look¬ 
ing over her father’s shoulder. 

“Maybe that’s the Indian’s weather vane,” 
suggested Mrs. Dalton, “and the letters stand 
for the points of the compass, like our N for 
north, and so on.” 


30 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


‘‘I don't believe so,” spoke Mr. Dalton. “If 
they intended this for a weather vane mere 
would have been an arrow or a cross or some¬ 
thing like that.” 

Mazie was busy with pencil and paper, 
putting down the letters. 

“What are you trying to do?” asked Kick. 

“Seeing what they spell,” she answered. 
“But ocem, mcoe, oemc or moce doesn't spell 
anything in English. Maybe it's an Indian 
word and meant danger for Uncle Tod!” she 
eagerly exclaimed. 

“You're getting as strangely mysterious as 
Rick,” laughed her father. “Wait a moment, 
though, ” he exclaimed as if a new idea had 
occurred to him. Quickly he set the letters 
down on paper, and then he wrote them in a 
new combination. 

“I have it!” he cried, as pleased as a boy or 
girl would have been over the solution of a 
puzzle. “This is the word!” 

He held out a paper on which he had written: 

COME 

“That's what it is,” he said. “It was a 
summons to Uncle Tod. The word is ‘come,' 


THE TELEGRAM 


31 


and on a bullet means 4 come in a hurry,’ I take 
it. I think we have solved that much.” 

4 ‘Huh! Come,” murmured Rick. “I guess 
that’s it. But say, what a lot of combinations 
you can make out of four letters!” he cried. 
He wrote,—meco, ocem, cmoe, moce, eomc, 
mcoe—until his mother cried: 

“Oh, Rick, stop it! You’re getting on my 
nerves!” 

But it is rather surprising to see how many 
combinations, other than the right one, can be 
made from those four letters. 

“It seems, then,” went on Mr. Dalton, “that 
Uncle Tod was summoned away by this myste¬ 
rious message, tossed over the back fence by 
some one unknown. Why this form of summons 
should be chosen, rather than an ordinary letter 
I don’t know. But as long as Uncle Tod has 
gone, and the letter he left seems to confirm 
this, we might try to find out how he was able 
to slip off without any of you seeing him, ’ ’ and 
he looked at his wife, daughter and son. 

“I was swimming,” said Rick. 

“I only came home a little while ago,” Mazie 
said. “I was over to Helen’s house.” 

“And I’ve been so busy that all I remember 



32 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


is that Uncle Tod came in,” said Mrs. Dalton. 
“I didn’t hear him go out.” 

However the fact remained that Uncle Tod 
had gone out, and had taken a few things with 
him in a valise, which would seem to indicate 
that he intended remaining some time. 

“He must have come down the back stairs 
when I was in the front of the house,” decided 
Mrs. Dalton. 

“And he could easily get over the hack fence 
and go to the station that way,” added her hus¬ 
band. “I think I’ll make some inquiries at the 
railroad station. ’ ’ 

He did this, with the result that it was easily 
established Uncle Tod had met a man there, and 
had bought a ticket for a western city. But 
this was all that could be learned. 

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until he sends 
that telegram he speaks of in his letter,” said 
Mrs. Dalton. 

“Yes,” agreed her husband. “But I don’t 
see the need for all this mysteriousness.” 

“Uncle Tod knows what he’s doing,” said 
Rick. “I thought he was crazy when I was 
cruising with him on the Sallie, but it turned 
out all right, and I’m sure it will now. ’ ’ 


THE TELEGRAM 


33 


“Of course he may have had his reasons,’’ 
admitted Mr. Dalton, “but I can’t guess at 
any to make him leave so quickly and so se¬ 
cretly. It’s just as if he were afraid.” 

“Maybe he is afraid,” admitted Rick, “I 
mean afraid of getting us in trouble. He isn’t 
afraid for himself, but some danger might be 
hanging over him and he didn’t want us mixed 
up in it.” 

“Oh, nonsense!” laughed Mr. Dalton. “I 
guess you Boy Scouts have been playing too 
many Indian games.” 

“No,” said Rick, for he and Chot were now 
full-fledged Scouts, “we only do the best things 
the real Indians once did. Of course some of 
them were mysterious, and Uncle Tod may 
know about them. But I would like to know 
what all this means. ’ ’ 

“So would I,” agreed his mother with a sigh. 
“I hope nothing happens to Uncle Tod.” 

“I reckon he can look out for himself,” said 
her husband, and Rick murmured: 

“He sure can!” 

The family agreed that nothing was to be 
said to outsiders concerning the strange leaving 
of Uncle Tod. If questions were asked they 


34 


KICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


were to be evaded, or it could be said, with per¬ 
fect truth, that Mr. Belmont (his name was 
Toddingham Belmont) had gone away for a few 
days. 

“And when that telegram comes we’ll know 
more about it,” suggested Rick. Meanwhile he 
and Ruddy pursued their usual line of activities 
about Belemere, going swimming, fishing, crab¬ 
bing or off on joyous excursions in the fields 
and woods. 

And then, one day, the expected message 
came. Uncle Tod had been gone nearly a week, 
without a word as to his whereabouts when, one 
afternoon, the colored boy from the telegraph 
office, riding his ramshackle and rattling wheel, 
stopped at the Dalton home. 

“Oh, Mother!” cried Mazie. “Here’s a tele¬ 
gram ! ’ ’ 

Mrs. Dalton’s hand shook a little as she 
signed the book, for telegrams were rather un¬ 
usual, and she told Mazie to give the boy ten 
cents for himself. 

“Is it from Uncle Tod?” asked Rick eagerly, 
as he quieted Ruddy, with whom he had been 
romping in the yard. 


THE TELEGRAM 


35 


4 ‘I don’t know, my dear. I’ll tell you in a 
minute,” his mother answered. 

With still trembling hands she tore open the 
envelope. It was a telegram from Uncle Tod, 
dated from the western town of Bitter Sweet 
Gulch, and the message read: 

“Arrived safe and sound, but need help. Let 
Rick and Ruddy come West. I want them. Also 
bring another boy. They’ll have a good time and be 
of service to me. Will explain later. Come soon, 
and don’t forget Ruddy.’’ 

“Whew!” whistled Rick as he sensed the 
import of the message. “Ruddy and me for 
the West! Hurray. Oh, boy!” 


CHAPTER IV 


OFF FOR THE WEST 

E AGERLY Rick read over again the mes¬ 
sage that his mother surrendered to him. 
At first he could not grasp it all, but gradually 
the import came to him. 

Uncle Tod had strangely, quickly and mys¬ 
teriously gone out west, and now he wanted 
Rick and Ruddy to follow—that much was clear 
at all events. What he wanted Rick to do was 
still a mystery. 

“I guess he wants me to help him, same as 
he did when he had trouble with Bucktooth 
Slither,” suggested Rick, in answer to his 
mother’s suggestive glance. 

“But I thought that Slither went away,” 
said Mrs. Dalton. 

,“He did, so this must be somebody else,” 
spoke Rick. “Oh, Mother, may Ruddy and I 
go?” he pleaded. 

“We’ll have to see about it,” was her answer, 

36 


OFF FOR THE WEST 


37 


4 4 and talk it over with your father. Of course 
there is no school now, and you always wanted 
to see the west. But as for taking Ruddy—” 

44 Oh, I couldn’t go without Ruddy!” cried 
Rick. 44 Could I, old boy!” and he flung his 
arms around the shaggy head of his beloved 
dog. 

44 Well, we’ll see,” was all Mrs. Dalton could 
say. 4 4 Where is this Bitter Sweet Gulch, 
anyhow?” 

44 Out west—that’s all I know,” answered 
Rick. 44 Oh, boy! Out west! And Uncle Tod 
says for me to bring another fellow!” he added. 

44 Whom will you take—that is providing you 
can go?” asked his mother. 

44 Chot, of course,” was the ready reply. 
4 4 He and I are better chums than any of the 
other fellows, though I like ’em all. But 
Ruddy will mind Chot almost as good as he does 
me. I’m going over and tell Chot to get 
ready. ’ ’ 

44 No! Not yet!” commanded Mrs. Dalton, 
catching Rick as he would have rushed from the 
house. 44 Maybe you can’t go, and there’s no 
use getting Chot all worked up and then disap¬ 
pointing him. ’ ’ 



38 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


44 Oh, I hope we can go! I hope we can go! ’’ 
murmured Rick. 44 Don’t you want to go, 
Ruddy ?” he asked his dog. And if the joyous 
activity of the setter was any indication, he 
most certainly did want to go. 

“Hum,” was all Mr. Dalton said later, when 
told of the new turn in events. 4 4 Well, at*any 
rate, Uncle Tod telegraphed as he said he 
would. But I’d like to know considerable more 
of what it’s about.” 

44 He says he’s going to explain later,” re¬ 
marked Rick. 4 4 But if you let me and Chot and 
Ruddy go out there, Dad, we could write back 
all about it. ’ ’ 

4 4 1 ’ll see,” was all the satisfaction Rick got 
from his father. 

44 But when will you see?” persisted the lad. 
44 Uncle Tod wants us in a hurry, or he wouldn’t 
have telegraphed. When will you see, Dad?” 

44 Oh, I’ll send him a night letter asking for 
more explanations,” was Mr. Dalton’s deci¬ 
sion. 44 If it’s all right you can go.” 

And in the morning, following the despatch 
of the night letter to Bitter Sweet Gulch, there 
came another telegram from Uncle Tod to Mr. 
Dalton. The contents of this message Mr. 


OFF FOR THE WEST 


39 


Dalton did not tell his son, but it seemed to be 
satisfactory, for when Rick, with eager voice 
asked again: 

“Can we go?” 

The answer was: 

“Get ready!” 

“Whoop!” yelled Rick. “Now I can tell 
Chot! ’ ’ and away he and Ruddy, raced to the 
home of his chum. “Chot! Chot!” yelled 
Rick. “We’re going out west!” 

“Who is? You and Ruddy?” 

“Yes, and you\ Oh, boy! It’s too good to 
be true! Listen!” And Rick breathlessly 
told as much of the story as was needful. 

Chot clasped his chum firmly by the hand 
and led him into the presence of Mrs. Benson. 

“Tell her, Rick,” besought Chot, with pa¬ 
thetic eagerness. “And then say I can go, 
Momsie! Oh, say I can go!” he pleaded. 

“Well, what’s all this about?” asked Chot’s 
mother with a laugh. 

And when she had been told she looked a little 
serious and said, as Mrs. Dalton had said: 

“I’ll see.” 

However, not to go into too many details 
about the discussion of the questions, pro and 


40 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


con, let it be said that finally permission was 
given for Chot to accompany Rick and Ruddy 
out west. 

And then, as you may well imagine, busy 
times began in both households, for though, 
as compared to girls, boys are not difficult sub¬ 
jects to prepare for a journey, in this case 
there was Ruddy the dog to be considered. 

“I don’t really see how you are going to take 
him, ,, said Mr. Dalton, when the arrangements 
had been pretty well settled as to Rick and 
Chot. “ Ruddy will have to ride in baggage 
cars, and he ought to be put in a crate. He’s 
bound to be miserable and he may get loose and 
jump out.” 

Rick looked serious on hearing this. 

“You’d better leave him behind,” suggested 
Mrs. Dalton. 

“Nope!” declared Rick. “If Ruddy can’t 
go I don’t go—besides, Uncle Tod asked spe¬ 
cially for him.” 

“Well,” began Mr. Dalton, “I don’t see—” 

And then Mazie interrupted with a joyous cry 
of: 

“Oh, I’ve just thought of something! They 


OFF FOR THE WEST 


41 


could all go out in an auto; couldn ’t they; Rick, 
Ruddy and Chot?” 

“We could if we had a car,” answered Rick, 
a bit gloomily. 

“It would be swell!” declared Chot. “But 
we can’t drive a car away out beyond the 
Rockies. Besides, we haven’t any.” 

“No, but Mr. Campbell has,” said Mazie. 
“He’s going to go out west in his touring car, 
and Mabel Campbell was saying to me yester¬ 
day her father wished he had some one to make 
the trip with him, as none of them can go and he 
doesn’t like to travel alone.” 

“Is that so?” asked Mr. Dalton, and some of 
the perplexity faded from his face. “Well, if 
Mr. Campbell would take the boys and dog— 
Oh, but it’s too much to ask.” 

“I think he’d like it,” suggested Mrs. Dalton. 
“He’s always very friendly with Rick and 
Ruddy. Why don’t you call him up and ask 
him?” 

“Please do!” begged Rick. 

“All right,” assented his father, rather re¬ 
luctantly. “But it seems to me like a pretty 
large order.” 



42 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


However Mr. Campbell, who lived a few 
houses down the street, was soon talking over 
the wire to Mr. Dalton, and the upshot of it was 
that he readily agreed to take the boys and dog 
with him in his large touring car. He was go¬ 
ing all the way to San Francisco and Bitter 
Sweet Gulch was not much off his trail, he said. 
He would be glad to leave the boys and Ruddy 
there. 

44 Well, this looks better,” said Mr. Dalton, 
when he had expressed his own thanks and 
those of the boys. 4 4 It will be a lot easier go¬ 
ing by auto, especially with the dog. Of course 
it may take a little longer, but that can’t be 
helped. I’ll telegraph Uncle Tod you are com¬ 
ing. ’ ’ 

Rick and Chot did an impromptu war dance 
about the room, and Ruddy joined in while 
Mazie smiled happily, glad that she had been 
the means of solving what had been a difficult 
problem. 

Reservations that had been asked for in re¬ 
gard to railroad tickets and sleeping car berths 
were cancelled, and the boys began to go over 
again the lists of things they were going to take 
with them. Mr. Dalton went to call on Mr. 


OFF FOR THE WEST 


43 


Campbell to get the names of the different cit¬ 
ies, where stops would be made, so he could get 
in touch with Chot and Rick on the way out. 

“Oh, boy! Isn’t this the best ever!” cried 
Rick to Chot each time they met in the days that 
intervened before the start. 

“Couldn’t be better!” was the answer. 

Mrs. Dalton shook her head and sighed once 
or twice. 

“I’m sure I want you boys to have a good 
time,” she said, “but it is all so mysterious. 
What is Uncle Tod doing out there, and if he 
was needed why couldn’t he have been sent for 
in the regular way, instead of being summoned 
by a cabbage leaf and a bullet?” 

“That’s the best part of it,” chuckled Rick, 
“the mystery.” 

“You must tell me all about it,” begged 
Mazie. 

“We will,” promised Chot. “When we find 
it out ourselves. ’ ’ 

At last the preparations were completed, the 
boys’ bags were packed, Mr. Campbell had had 
his car inspected and “tuned-up,” and on a 
fine, sunny morning the little party started for 
the west. 


44 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Good-bye! Good-bye!” was called again, 
and in the eyes of Mrs. Dalton and Mrs. Benson 
were traces of tears. 

“Well,” said Mr. Campbell, as he shook 
hands with Mr. Benson and Mr. Dalton, “I’ll 
look after the boys all right—don’t worry.” 

“I won’t,” said Mr. Dalton, and Chot’s 
father nodded in assent. 

They had fairly started but stopped as Mrs. 
Dalton cried: 

“Here comes the telegraph boy! Maybe 
there’s a message from Uncle Tod! Wait a 
minute! ’ ’ 

Rick and Chot felt a sinking sensation in the 
region of their hearts as they thought perhaps 
this might be a message telling them not to 


come. 


CHAPTER V 


RUDDY GIVES WARNING 

W ITH a quick motion, Mr. Dalton tore 
open the envelope and rapidly scanned 
the telegram. By the smile that spread over 
his face the boys knew it could be nothing 
serious. 

‘ 4 What is it?” asked Mrs. Dalton. “Who 
is it from?” 

“Uncle Tod,” answered her husband. “He 
says: ‘Tell Rick not to forget Ruddy!’ ” 

“As if I would,” murmured the dog’s young 
master. 

“Oh, boy!” whispered Chot in his chum’s 
ear. “I was afraid he was dead or something, 
and we couldn’t go. ’’ 

“So was I,” admitted Rick. 

But after this slight delay the start was made 
again, though “Sartin Sure,” the colored man 
of all work about the Dalton place, sighed and 
shook his head dubiously as the auto went down 
the street. 


45 


46 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“What’s the matter, Sartin Sure?” asked 
Mazie. This odd name had been given the 
faithful negro helper because of his habit, 
whenever asked if he could do anything, of 
answering: “Sartin, sure I kin do it!” 

“Bad luck, Missie,” he answered. 

“Bad luck, Sartin, what do you mean?” 
asked Rick’s sister. 

“Dey is suah t’ hab bad luck, fo’ didn’t dey 
start off an’ den stop t’ read dat tellygraft? 
Dey did, an ’ dey suah will hab bad luck! ’ ’ 

“Isn’t there any way of stopping it, Sartin?” 
asked Mazie, more to please the old man than 
because she really had any belief in his many 
superstitions. 

“Well, Missie, if dey had got out an’ turned 
around free times arter dey done stopped when 
dey had once started, dat would hab scairt de 
bad luck off. But now de only t’ing t’ do is fo’ 
somebody t’ hide a black hoss hair under a 
stone an’ say, free times: ‘Bad luck ride 
away!’ ” 

“Couldn’t you do that, Sartin Sure?” asked 
Mazie. 

“Why, ob course, Missie, Ah kin ef yo’ wants 
me t’.” 


RUDDY GIVES WARNING 


47 


“It might not be a bad idea,” agreed Mazie, 
more to take the old man’s mind off his super¬ 
stitious brooding than for any other reason. 

“Den Ah’ll do it!” he declared. “Ah suah 
will!” 

And he did, for some time later that day Mrs. 
Dalton saw him muttering and puttering away 
over a flat stone in the garden. 

“What in the world is he doing?” Mazie’s 
mother asked her. 

“Driving away Rick’s bad luck,” was the 
laughing answer. 

“Oh, Mazie, you shouldn’t tease him or en¬ 
courage him that way,” her mother objected. 

“He’s got to have something to amuse him¬ 
self with,” said the girl with another laugh, 
“and as long as I don’t believe in it, no harm is 
done.” 

“But you shouldn’t let Sartin think you be¬ 
lieve in such foolish charms,” went on her 
mother. “However it’s done, now, but don’t 
do it again.” 

“I won’t,” promised Mazie. “But, Oh, I do 
hope the boys will be all right.” 

“Your father seems to think they will be,” 
said Mrs. Dalton. “Of course it’s a long, and 


48 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


not easy, trip for such young lads, but Mr. 
Campbell will look well after them, and when 
they get to Bitter Sweet Gulch, there Uncle Tod 
will meet them. I guess they’ll be all right.” 

As for Rick, Chot and Ruddy they had not the 
slightest doubt but that they would safely get 
out west, and there was no end to the many ad¬ 
ventures they planned, from learning to be cow¬ 
boys to visiting the reservations of all the In¬ 
dians within a hundred miles. 

Rick and Chot knew, as do most sensible boys, 
that the days of Indian hunting and buffalo 
chasing across the western plains were gone 
forever. The buffalo, except those on pro¬ 
tected ranges, were a thing of the romantic 
past, and as for the Indians, they were rapidly 
dying off, and those who remained were on 
government reservations. 

Of course, down toward the Mexican border 
there were occasional outbreaks of the Yaquis, 
but from these our friends had nothing to fear, 
for they were not going that far south. Not 
that Rick and Chot would have “feared” this 
contingency. To the contrary they would 
rather have welcomed it. But it was not to be. 

And so, for the first few days, they traveled 


RUDDY GIVES WARNING 


49 


on with Mr. Campbell in his comfortable tonr¬ 
ing car, with Euddy on the seat between them, 
and nothing of any moment occurred. There 
was an occasional bit of tire trouble, and once 
they ran into such a rain storm that they re¬ 
mained for two days near a city, waiting for the 
storm to pass. 

The boys even enjoyed this stay, for Mr. 
Campbell put up at a hotel in a small suburban 
town just outside the city, as he thought the 
boys and dog would have more freedom than in 
a larger inn. And Chot and Eick appreciated 
this, as did Euddy. 

Then the rain stopped, the sun came out and 
they were on their way again. As Mr. Camp¬ 
bell did not have to keep to any strict time¬ 
table, or schedule, the loss of a few days did 
not matter. 

They did not expect all “smooth sailing,” 
and they did not get it. Toward evening, on 
about the fifth day of travel, they were ap¬ 
proaching a fairly large city, outside of which 
were signs along the highway warning that 
the road was under reconstruction. Half of 
the thoroughfare was torn up and was being 
replaced with new concrete, while the other 


50 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


half, in a distressing state of ruts and holes, 
was used by vehicles. 

Owing to the fact that the part of the road 
that was in use was so narrow that two autos 
could not pass, the machines had to be operated 
like trains on a single track road. That is a 
certain number were allowed to come east, 
while western traffic was held up at the control 
station until the signal was given to let the 
waiting ones have their turn. 

On the occasion when our friends started 
down the narrow road, piled thickly with high¬ 
way materials on the side being rebuilt some¬ 
thing went wrong with the signals, and two 
streams of autos—pleasure cars and trucks 
started from each end at the same time. 

The result was that none could pass, any 
more than two trains meeting on a single track, 
while going in opposite directions, can get by. 

There was a lot of talk, and it seemed impos¬ 
sible to straighten out the tangle, unless one or 
the other of the long line of cars backed up, and 
none of the drivers wanted to do this. 

feut finally one of the highway engineers got 
a gang of men out and they hastily made a wide 
enough place so that one line of cars could turn 


RUDDY GIVES WARNING 


51 


out, though it was risky work, for there was 
mud and water all over on account of the 
rain. 

As it was, one car just behind Mr. Campbell’s 
was upset, though no one was hurt for it was 
moving slowly. Mr. Campbell and the boys 
helped right the machine and then towed it, as 
the stearing gear was broken. 

“Well, I’m glad we’re out of that!” ex¬ 
claimed Mr. Campbell when they were again on 
a broad highway. “And I think I’ll take a 
short cut I know of to get into Elmwood. 
We’ll stay there for the night.” 

“Have you been this way before!” asked 
Rick. 

“Oh, yes, once or twice, and I think I know a 
back road that will take us into Elmwood in 
much shorter time than by following the main 
trail. We’ll try it.” 

He swung off after passing through the next 
small city and as darkness fell the boys and 
dog with Mr. Campbell were traveling along a 
fairly good, but evidently seldom-used, country 
highway. 

“What do you think your Uncle Tod has for 
us to do out where he is, Rick!” asked Chot as 


52 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

the auto rolled along, not any too smoothly, for 
the road became rougher. 

“I can’t seem to guess,” was the answer, 
“though I’ve tried a lot. It’s almost like the 
time he took me on the Sallie. I didn’t know 
what in the world he was up to until toward the 
end.” 

“And he’s so particular about having Ruddy 
come, ’ ’ went on Chot. ‘ ‘ Why do you s ’pose he 
wants the dog?” 

“Well, Ruddy’s smart,” said Rick, a bit 
proudly, as you would have felt if you owned 
such a dog. 

“I know that,” agreed Chot. “Oh, say, 
maybe he’s gone in for raising sheep—a lot of 
men out west do that'—and maybe he wants 
Ruddy to help drive the sheep.” 

“Maybe,” assented Rick. “But I don’t 
guess—if it was just sheep herding—that Uncle 
Tod would be in such a hurry and act so 
queer. It’s something else, and I hope we can 
help.” 

“So do I,” agreed Chot. “Anyhow, I’m 
glad we got Ruddy along.” 

Rick was, too, and he gently pulled the ears of 
his four-footed chum, at which sign of affection 


RUDDY GIVES WARNING 


53 


Ruddy tried to wash Rick’s face with that ever- 
busy red tongue. 

It grew very dark as they progressed along 
the quiet back-country road, and Mr. Campbell 
drove carefully, scanning the highway as it was 
revealed to him in the glare of his powerful 
headlights. 

“I think we’re going to have another storm, 
boys,” he remarked. 

There was a flashing of distant lightning and 
a rumble of thunder, at which sound Ruddy 
pricked up his ears. 

“Think it’ll come before we get to Elm¬ 
wood!” asked Rick. 

“I hope not. I don’t fancy being on a dirt 
road in a rain,” was the answer. “But I think 
we must be nearly there.” 

“I just saw a sign post!” exclaimed Chot as 
they flashed past one. ‘ 1 Shall I get out and see 
what it says ? ’ ’ 

“If you wouldn’t mind,” suggested Mr. 
Campbell. 

He stopped the car and Rick and Chot, ac¬ 
companied by Ruddy ran back, for the boys 
said they wanted to “stretch their legs” that 
were cramped from long sitting in the car. 


54 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


44 Fifteen miles to Elmwood,” read Chot in 
the light of a pocket flashlamp he carried. 

“I thought we were nearer than that,” re¬ 
marked Mr. Campbell. 44 Well it won’t take 
long if we can beat the rain.” 

But the louder thunder, and the increased 
brightness and frequency of the lightning, 
seemed to indicate that the storm would soon 
break. 

Mr. Campbell guided his car around a curve, 
at a point where the trees meeting overhead 
rendered the highway very dark. He saw a 
straight stretch ahead of him, and was about to 
resume speed when Ruddy suddenly uttered a 
howl, so weird and so full of import that, as 
Chot said afterward, it made his hair stand up. 

44 Ruddy! Ruddy! What’s the matter!” 
cried Rick, patting his dog’s head. 

Again Ruddy howled, in that mournful way 
dogs have—a nerve-racking sound at best, and 
doubly so on a lonely road after dark and with 
a brooding storm overhead. 

Mr. Campbell suddenly jammed on the brakes, 
locking the rear wheels and sliding the car 
along with a crunch of gravel beneath the tires. 

4 4 What’s the matter f ’ ’ cried Rick. 



RUDDY GIVES WARNING 


55 


“Pm afraid of danger,” was the answer. “I 
believe Ruddy is trying to warn us of some¬ 
thing ! 9 9 

And again the dog howled mournfully, as the 
car slackened speed. 


CHAPTER VI 


A WILD RIDE 

R ICK and Chot seemed to feel a thrill go 
through them at these words. What was 
going to happen? Something exciting they 
hoped. Perhaps robbers were going to “hold 
them up,” and certainly the scene was wild 
enough to imagine almost anything taking place. 

“Quiet, Ruddy!” ordered Rick, for the dog 
was trying to leap from the car. 

Suddenly there came a most vivid flash of 
lightning—brighter than any that had yet pres¬ 
aged the coming of the blast. It was followed 
by a clap of thunder, coming so closely after- 
the glare as to indicate that the storm was very 
near—if not ready to break instantly. 

And in that startling flare the occupants of 
the automobile saw something that caused them 
to gasp in fear. 

For the machine had come to a stop not five 
feet from the edge of a broken bridge—a bridge 

56 




The machine came to a stop not five feet from the 

broken bridge. 







. 

. 














•* 




III 














A WILD RIDE 


57 

that spanned a deep and rocky ravine, and had 
they rolled into it not one might have escaped 
death. 

For a moment no one spoke—even Ruddy 
ceased his howls and his frantic efforts to get 
out of the auto. And then, as another vivid 
flash came, and more details of the broken 
bridge impressed themselves on the visions of 
Mr. Campbell and the boys, there were gasps 
of relief at the danger escaped. 

‘ i Say, ’’ exclaimed Chot with a show of right¬ 
eous indignation, “it’s dangerous to have 
bridges like that—all broken. They ought to 
have some sort of a warning.” 

‘ ‘ That’s right! ’ ’ agreed Rick. ‘ 1 There ought 
to be a red lamp here! ’’ 

1 ‘There may have been,” said Mr. Campbell, 
“and the wind may have blown it out. I can’t 
believe any one who knew of this broken bridge 
would neglect to put out a warning sign. That 
is unless the bridge has just collapsed. We’ll 
take a look. But I think we owe our lives to 
Ruddy. ’ ’ 

“Do you think he knew about it?” asked 
Chot in an awed voice. 

“It seems so; doesn’t it?” asked Rick. “He 



58 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

howled just at the right time to stop us; didn’t 
he?” 

‘ 4 He surely did,’ ’ agreed Mr. Campbell. 4 ‘ His 
howls and the queer way he acted convinced 
me that something was wrong which we couldn’t 
see or know about. So I thought it best to stop 
suddenly, though at the time I felt it might be 
a foolish and superstitious notion. But it 
wasn’t. ” 

“How do you s’pose Ruddy knew about it?” 
inquired Cliot. 

“Same as dogs know when a person’s going 
to die,” said Rick. “Dogs always howl the 
night before a person’s going to die.” 

“Who told you that?” asked Mr. Campbell, 
as he prepared to alight from the car. 

‘ 1 Sartin Sure, the colored man who works for 
us—he told me,” said the boy. “He said he 
never knew it to fail, that when he heard a dog 
howl, the next day somebody would be dead.” 

“That’s all bosh!” laughed Mr. Campbell. 
“I admit that a dog may howl in the night, and 
somewhere in our city a person may be dead 
next day. But that doesn’t prove anything. 
Dogs will howl more on moonlight nights than 


A WILD RIDE 


59 


any other, but more persons don’t die on such 
nights than on nights when there is no moon. 

“It’s just a coincidence—an accidental hap¬ 
pening so to speak. Dogs can’t possibly know 
when a person is going to die—that is unless 
they are right with them, and perhaps a dog who 
has been associated with his master many years 
may then, in some strange way, sense when the 
end comes.” 

11 But don’t you think Buddy knew about this 
broken bridge!” asked Rick. 

Mr. Campbell was silent for a moment as he 
alighted from the auto, followed by Rick, Chot 
and Ruddy. 

“Well,” came the answer at last, “I won’t 
say that he actually knew about it, in the way 
that we would have known had some one told 
us. But he must have sensed it, just as Ruddy 
may often have known, Rick, the moment you 
came in the house when he was asleep, though 
you may have entered so quietly as to make 
no noise.” 

“Yes, I’ve had that happen,” admitted Rick. 

“Well, perhaps in the same strange, mys¬ 
terious way Ruddy may have sensed that there 




60 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


was something wrong with this bridge and he 
howled—the only way he had of warning us. 
And he certainly did warn us. ’ ’ 

“In time, too,” added Chot. “If you’d gone 
a few feet farther—” 

He did not finish the sentence, but they all 
knew what he meant. In silence they walked 
to the edge of the broken bridge, and in the 
glare of the car headlights, which gleamed suffi¬ 
ciently when the lightning was not flashing 
more brightly, they saw what had happened. 

The bridge was old and rotten—perhaps it 
would not have held up the weight of the auto 
—and the two main supporting beams had 
broken close to the end nearest the travelers. 
The bridge had fallen into the ravine, the 
farther end supported on the other side like a 
hinge. And as more lightning flashes came 
they revealed the sharp and jagged rocks below 
—rocks on which they would have been impaled 
and smashed but for Ruddy’s timely warning. 

They talked it all over again—waiting there 
for the storm to break. They wondered how 
Ruddy could have known—they even wondered 
if he really did know. Was it not all just a co¬ 
incidence? Was not Ruddy merely howling be- 


A WILD RIDE 


61 


cause he didn’t like lightning? And did not 
Mr. Campbell stop instinctively, as, perhaps, 
you have stopped suddenly, and for no reason 
when about to step into danger? 

These were questions that never could be an¬ 
swered. So they gave up trying to find suitable 
replies, and patted Ruddy with thankful feel¬ 
ings in their hearts over their escape from dan¬ 
ger. As for Ruddy, he seemed content, now 
that he had warned his friends, and howled no 
more. 

There came another vivid glare of the sky- 
fireworks, followed by a resounding crash, at 
which Ruddy gave a little howl and snuggled 
closer to Rick. Then the silence that ensued 
was broken by a curious pattering sound all 
around the travelers who stood near the car. 

“Rain!” exclaimed Rick. 

“That’s right,” echoed Mr. Campbell. 
“We’d better get under cover.” 

He led the way to the automobile and began 
getting out the side curtains from the overhead 
pocket beneath the top. The boys helped him, 
and though it was hard work to adjust them in 
the increasing wind and darkness, they managed 
to get them in place. The lightning was a hin- 


62 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


derance rather than a help for though it was 
brilliantly light one moment, it was intensely 
dark the next, and the darkness lasted longer 
than did the light. 

However they were finally as well protected 
as possible against the rain which came down 
with increasing volume as they worked at the 
side curtains, and when they were at last shel¬ 
tered in the car there descended a veritable 
deluge. 

‘ ‘ What are you going to do, Mr. Campbell ? ’ ’ 
asked Rick as the electric starter spun the fly 
wheel and set the engine in motion. 

“Fm going to get off this road,” was the an¬ 
swer. “We can’t go any farther this way on 
account of the broken bridge. I don’t know 
any other back route to Elmwood. I was fool¬ 
ish to take this short cut. I should have stuck 
to the main road. But I guess we’ll find some 
place we can stay all night, for I think this 
storm is going to last and get worse.” 

Certainly it seemed to bear out that predic¬ 
tion, for the wind, the rain, the thunder and 
lightning produced an effect that was not at 
all pleasant. Ruddy curled up in the rear 
among the blankets and baggage, and Rick and 


A WILD RIDE 


63 


Chot almost wished they could forget every¬ 
thing as the dog seemed to be doing. He had 
no responsibility. 

But Rick and Chot were not shirkers. They 
were willing to do all they could to help in this 
time of stress and trouble. They were not 
Boy Scouts for nothing. They wanted to play 
their parts like men if need arose. And so, as 
they sat on the front seat with Mr. Campbell 
—for there was room for all three—they were 
on the alert for any further danger that might 
come up. 

Mr. Campbell began carefully backing the 
car to turn it, and this was not easily done as 
the road was narrow where it approached the 
bridge. Just as he got the machine around, 
and was about to start off, there was a crash 
behind and the sound of broken glass. 

‘ ‘ What’s that?” cried the man at the wheel. 

“We’ve smashed something,” said Rick. 
“I’ll see what it is.” 

‘ ‘ Here, put your rain coat on and take a flash 
light,” ordered Mr. Campbell, reaching forward 
into one of the side pockets. “No use getting 
any wetter. ’ ’ 

The boys had brought rain coats with them. 


64 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


They were in the rear of the machine and Rick 
quickly donned his and slipped out back to see 
what had happened. In the flash of the pocket 
electric light he saw where the auto had backed 
into a pole that had held a red danger lantern. 
Doubtless this had been placed to warn trav¬ 
elers of the broken bridge, but the red light 
was out when our friends drove up. 

“You ran right into it,” Rick explained to 
Mr. Campbell. “It’s all smashed—I mean the 
red lantern is.” 

4 ‘ Well, it had probably burned out, anyhow, ’ ’ 
was his reply. “That’s why it gave us no 
warning. But I wish we had some way of let¬ 
ting others who might come along here know 
that the bridge is down. I’ll stop at the first 
house we pass and leave word. But meanwhile 
some one may happen to come this road, though 
it isn’t likely in the storm.” 

“Couldn’t we put a rail, or something across 
the road?” suggested Chot. “I mean some¬ 
thing that would break easy so it wouldn’t dam¬ 
age any car that ran into it. When they hit it 
they’d stop, and then they could see the broken 
bridge.” 


A WILD RIDE 


65 


“That’s a good idea,” said Mr. Campbell. 
“We’ll do it. As you say, they’ll stop when 
they crash into a light rail or small tree, and 
they won’t be going very fast—not on this road 
in this storm.” 

It was not a very agreeable task to get out in 
the mud, water and darkness, amid glaring 
lightning and resounding thunder and fix some 
sort of warning. But at last they managed to 
span the road with a light barrier that would 
easily break when a car ran into it. And once 
a motorist crashed into this harmless obstruc¬ 
tion he would, very likely, look ahead to see the 
reason it was placed across the road. Then he 
would discover the broken bridge. 

“There, it’s the best we can do,” said Mr. 
Campbell as they entered the machine again. 
“Say,” he suddenly asked, “aren’t you boys 
hungry?” 

“A little,” admitted Rick. 

4 4 Same here, ’ ’ echoed Chot. 

44 Well, why didn’t you tell me?” 

44 We didn’t know you had anything to eat,” 
said Rick. 

“I haven’t very much, but at the last place 


66 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


we stopped I had them put me up some sand¬ 
wiches and a thermos bottle of hot chocolate. 
I reckon it will come in good now; eh f ’’ 

“Oh, boy!” murmured Chot. 

“It's better than a Thanksgiving turkey!” 
exclaimed Rick. 

Mr. Campbell got out the little lunch, and 
never had an elaborate meal tasted better to 
the boys—or to Ruddy also, for he had his share 
of sandwich ends and was grateful. 

Then, heartened and warmed—for the rain 
was cold in spite of the summer weather that 
had prevailed—they started off. If the road 
had been hard to travel earlier in the evening, 
before the rain, it was doubly so now. 

The auto lurched and swayed from side to 
side. Now one wheel would descend into some 
mud hole and again another would slip into a 
miniature ravine, throwing all in the car to one 
side. 

All the while the flood of rain kept up, the 
lightning glared and the thunder, at times, was 
almost deafening. The only occupant of the 
car on that wild ride, who seemed in comfort 
was Ruddy, well protected in the rear among 
the baggage. 


A WILD RIDE 


67 


“Let me know if any of you see a light 
ahead/’ suggested Mr. Campbell to the boys. 
“Pve got to keep my eyes on the road,” and as 
he spoke the steering wheel was almost jerked 
from his hands by the lurch of the car. 

“Do you mean the lights of another auto 
coming!” asked Chot. 

“Any glimmer at all,” was the answer. 
“What Pd like to see would be the lights of 
some hotel, or inn. We can’t travel this way 
all night. We’ve got to put up somewhere.” 

They rode along for perhaps ten minutes 
more and then Rick suddenly called: 

“I see a light!” 



CHAPTER VII 


THE LONELY CABIN 

T HE car lurched again, went down on one 
side, as a front wheel sank into a mud 
hole, swung out as Mr. Campbell pulled it back 
on the firmer surface, and then came the ques¬ 
tion from the steersman: 

“Where is it, Rick? That light?” 

“Off to the left.” 

“I don’t see anything,” Mr. Campbell said, 
“and I don’t dare take my eyes from the road 
long enough to look. What did it seem to be, 
Rick?” 

“I don’t know—just a light, that’s all.” 

“I see it, too!” suddenly cried Chot, and 
Ruddy roused up at the boys’ voices, and put his 
fore paws on the back of the front seat. 

“Down, old fellow,” said Rick gently. 
“Don’t jump up again.” 

Ruddy quieted and Mr. Campbell, slowing 
down the speed of the car, looked around. 

“I see it,” he said. “Looks as if it were in a 

68 


THE LONELY CABIN 


69 


house, or something. Well, whatever it is, they 
ought to take us in. It’s dangerous to keep on 
in this storm/’ 

He drove slowly ahead and then, in the sheen 
from the auto headlights and the glare from 
the fitful lightning flashes the travelers saw a 
lonely cabin beside the road. From it came 
the cheerful gleam of light, and as the travelers 
drew nearer they could see that the gleam 
spread from a kerosene lamp on a table, about 
which, as they could see in through the window, 
were gathered three men. 

“I don’t remember to have passed this place 
before,” said Mr. Campbell, as he guided the 
machine up to the door. “But maybe I didn’t 
notice it. Anyhow, it’s the best port we could 
make in this storm, if they’ll take us in. Whew! 
I believe it’s raining harder, if such a thing is 
possible!” 

Indeed the storm was a regular deluge now. 
The thunder seemed dying away and the light¬ 
ning was not so frequent and vivid, but the 
rain was beating down powerfully. 

“Better stay in the car, boys, until I see if 
they will take us in,” suggested Mr. Campbell, 
as he got out. “It looks like a private house— 



70 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


or perhaps I’d better say shack—but maybe 
they’ll have room for us.” 

However, Rick and Chot had already alighted 
from the car, believing their rain coats were 
protection enough. Ruddy followed them, a sad 
and bedraggled figure, his tail drooping between 
his legs. 

Mr. Campbell advanced to the door and 
knocked, and Rick and Chot, standing where 
they could look in the window, saw the three 
men around the table where the lamp shone, 
start from their seats. 

The boys also saw something else, for one 
of the men reached for a gun standing against 
a chair. 

‘‘ Did you see that f ’ ’ whispered Chot to Rick. 

4 i Look out, Mr. Campbell, ’ ’ warned Rick, not 
pausing to reply to his chum. “They have a 
gun!” 

“Oh, that’s all right,” was the easy answer. 
“We’re getting into the west now, and when 
any one knocks on the door of a lonely cabin 
after dark the safest thing is to reach for a 
gun—not that you’ll have to use it, but just for 
safety’s sake.” 

Silence followed the knock on the door— 


THE LONELY CABIN 


71 


though it was not a complete silence, for there 
was the pelting of the rain that made a con¬ 
tinuous low roar—and then came a hail from 
within the lonely cabin: 

“Who’s there?” 

“Strangers and travelers,” answered Mr. 
Campbell. “We’ve lost our way in the storm 
—the bridge is down just beyond here—” 

Suddenly the door was flung open, and in the 
glare of the lamp the three men in the cabin 
gazed out into the rain-swept darkness. One 
of them held a gun in readiness, but when the 
gleam of the light fell on the forms of Rick, 
Ruddy and Chot, as well as on the friendly 
though wet and dripping face of Mr. Campbell, 
the weapon was laid aside. 

“What’s that you say, stranger?” asked the 
foremost man. “Is the bridge over Rocky 
Gulch gone?” 

“It’s down, yes, and but for the howling of 
our dog we might have gone down with it. 
There was a red light, but it was out, and we 
didn’t have any warning. Then we turned 
back in the storm, but we must have lost our 
way for I don’t remember to have passed this 
place before.” 



72 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Very likely you didn’t,” was the comment. 
“ It’s off the main road. But come in stranger, 
and bring the boys and dog with you. It’s no 
night for even a dog to be out in.” 

It was a warm enough welcome coming from 
strangers, and the boys were very glad to enter 
the shack, Ruddy following his master. 

“Is there any place around here where I can 
leave my car?” asked Mr. Campbell. 

4 4 Shed around back , 91 gruffly answered one of 
the men. 

“And, if it isn’t asking too much, could we 
stay here for the night?” was the next request 
of Mr. Campbell. “We can stretch out on the 
floor, or sit around the fire, for that matter.” 

“I guess we can put you up,” was the some¬ 
what gruff answer from the man who had done 
most of the talking. “We’ve got some bunks 
—this is a hunter’s cabin, and—” 

‘ ‘ But we ’re not hunting now, ’ ’ came the quick 
retort of another of the trio. “We know the 
game laws! ’ ’ 

“I’m not a warden,” laughed Mr. Campbell. 
“You have nothing to fear. I’ll just run the 
car under the shed, and then I’ll bring your 
bags in if you want them,” he added, for 


THE LONELY CABIN 


73 


he thought Hick and Chot might want to don 
sleeping garments, as long as there were bunks 
for them to turn into. 

“Oh, don’t bother,” said Rick. “We’re all 
right as we are, and the rain coats kept us dry 
—all but our feet and we can take off our 
shoes.” 

“We’ve got a good fire,” said another of 
the men, and the boys saw the flames leaping 
and crackling in a fireplace as they advanced 
farther into the room. 

Mr. Campbell ran the car around behind the 
lonely shack, where he found a rough shed that 
would afford some protection against the rain, 
and keep dry the baggage and other things in 
the car. Sensing that this was a sort of rough- 
and-ready stopping place, Mr. Campbell did not 
bring in any of his luggage or that of the boys ’ 
either. They could take off some of their 
clothes and stretch out in the bunks, waiting 
for morning and, he hoped, the stopping of the 
storm. 

When he again entered the cabin he found 
Hick and Chot drying their feet before the fire, 
their shoes having been removed, and Ruddy 
was stretched out basking in the genial warmth. 


74 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


The three men sat at the table, where they had 
been playing cards. Seemingly they were 
awaiting the reappearance of Mr. Campbell 
that he might give a further account of himself 
and his boy companions. 

Mr. Campbell seemed to realize that an ex¬ 
planation was in order, for he told, without be¬ 
ing asked, of his trip to San Francisco, and men¬ 
tioned that he was taking Rick out to join Uncle 
Tod. 

“You’ve got quite a ways yet to go,” ob¬ 
served the man who seemed to be the leader. 
He had introduced himself as Martin, and his 
companions as Elkton and Shadd. ‘*We’re 
looking up some timber claims here, ’ ’ he added, 

‘ ‘ and we got the use of this cabin. ’Tisn’t ours, 
but you’re welcome to stay, and we have some 
grub left. ’ ’ 

“Thanks,” said Mr. Campbell. “We don’t . 
want to rob you, but a cup of hot coffee would 
go mighty well now—if you can spare it.” 

“Sure!” said the man called Shadd. He 
seemed to be the cook, for soon, on a ramshackle 
stove in what was the kitchen of the shack, he 
had brewed steaming coffee that was most 
grateful to the tired, cold and damp travelers. 


THE LONELY CABIN 


75 


“Like some baked beans?” asked Shadd, 
when the coffee had been disposed of. 

“Sure!” exclaimed Kick, at whom the ques¬ 
tion seemed to be directed. 

“We got plenty of them, and some bread and 
butter,” went on the cook. “Might as well 
make a meal when you have the chance. I can 
give you bacon, too.” 

“Say,” laughed Mr. Campbell, “this is a 
regular hotel.” 

“Hardly that,” said Joe Martin, as the others 
called him, “but such as ’tis you’re welcome 
to.” 

Seldom had a meal tasted better, for all three 
were very hungry in spite of the sandwiches 
and chocolate they had partaken of not long 
before. 

And then as the rain kept up its pelting on 
the roof of the lonely shack, the boys sat and 
were permeated by the warmth of the blazing 
fire while Ruddy sighed in contentment. If Mr. 
Campbell was worried about the chance of keep¬ 
ing on next day, over rain-torn roads, he said 
nothing about it. 

The shack was larger than it first appeared. 
There was the main room, where the fire blazed, 


76 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


a small kitchen and two other rooms, fitted with 
three bunks in each one. Mr. Campbell and the 
boys were given one bunk room for themselves, 
and the other was used by the lumbermen as 
they called themselves. 

4 ‘Better turn in, boys,” suggested Mr. Camp¬ 
bell, as he noticed Rick and Chot nodding be¬ 
fore the sleep-compelling blaze. 

“I guess I will,” said Rick, and soon he and 
his chum, with Ruddy stretched out in a cor¬ 
ner, were soundly slumbering. Mr. Campbell 
‘ ‘ turned in ’ ’ a little later. 

Rick’s last thoughts, as he dozed off in the 
fairly comfortable bunk, were of his Uncle Tod. 
He wondered why his mother’s relative had 
departed so suddenly after the receipt of the 
mysterious message. Also Rick wondered why 
Uncle Tod wanted him, another boy and Ruddy 
to come out west. 

Puzzled thoughts over these questions seemed 
to follow Rick in his sleep, for he dreamed that 
he and Chot were trying to rescue Uncle Tod 
from the Indians who had unexpectedly started 
on the war path. Rick was dimly conscious 
that Ruddy was moving uneasily about in the 
night, and he also thought he felt the dog’s cold 


THE LONELY CABIN 


77 


nose on his face as if Ruddy were trying to 
awaken him. 

But Rick slept on, and so did Chot, until the 
morning sun streamed in through a window, be¬ 
tokening that the storm was over. 

Then they heard Mr. Campbell calling them. 
He had left his bunk, and was in the main room, 
and, as he called, there was that in his voice 
which showed wonder and alarm. 


CHAPTER VIII 


“gone !” 


NYTHING the matter?” asked Rick, 



ii as, followed by Ruddy and Chot he has¬ 
tened from the bunk room into the main apart¬ 
ment where the cold gray ashes had replaced 
the cheerful, blazing tire of the night before. 

“Anything wrong?” Chot wanted to know. 

“Well, I don’t know that you could call it 
wrong ,’’ said Mr. Campbell with a pat on 
Ruddy’s head, “but our hosts *seem to have 
disappeared! Did you hear them go in the 
night?” 

“Have the men left,” asked Rick. 

“I don’t see any signs of them,” was the 
answer. “And I slept so heavily that I didn’t 
hear a sound. Did either of you?” 

“I thought I felt Ruddy moving around in 
the night,” Rick answered. “But I didn’t 
wake up or hear anything. ’ ’ 

“Me either,” admitted Chot. “But, any- 


78 


“GONE!” 


79 


how, it’s cleared off and we can travel along.” 

“Yes, we can travel along,” said Mr. Camp¬ 
bell. “I don’t believe those men will care if 
I help myself to some of their coffee and grab. 
They were free enough with it last night. If 
they come back, and object, I’ll pay them.” 

“Do you know where they have gone!” Rick 
wanted to know. 

Mr. Campbell shook his head. 

“I came out here as soon as I was up,” he 
explained , i ‘ and I saw no one. Then I knocked 
on the door of their bunk room, but there was 
no answer. I opened the door and looked in 
and they were gone.” 

“Maybe they went out early to look up some 
trees,” suggested Chot. 

“What do you mean—look up trees!” asked 
Rick. ‘ ‘ Do you mean to look and see if there’s 
a bear to shoot!” 

“No, I mean about cutting some lumber,” 
explained Chot. 

“Oh,” exclaimed his chum. “I see.” 

“It’s possible they did that,” said Mr. Camp¬ 
bell. “Of course they have a right to do as 
they please, but they might have left a note or 
something to say they’d be back. But it’s 


80 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


their business, I reckon. And I’m going to see 
what sort of a breakfast I can get.” 

“We’ll help,” offered Rick and Chot. 

Coffee was soon boiling on the stove, and 
bacon was sizzling in the pan. By rummaging 
further in a pantry Mr. Campbell found some 
prepared flour and, declaring that he was a 
master-hand at turning flapjacks, he proved it 
by setting before the boys two plates of deli¬ 
cately-browned pancakes. 

“There’s even maple syrup, or what passes 
for it, to eat on them,” he said, producing a 
sticky brown bottle. 

“Oh, boy!” cried Rick. 

“Can’t beat this—not even at home!” de¬ 
clared Chot, and they kept Mr. Campbell busy 
over the frying pan which he used in place of 
a pancake griddle. He did not neglect himself, 
however, and soon all three—no, all four, for 
Ruddy was not forgotten—had eaten a good 
breakfast. 

“Well, since our friends don’t seem to be 
coming back, we’ll have to write a note and 
express our thanks for their hospitality,” said 
Mr. Campbell, after the meal. “Then we’ll 
start off again, but I don’t imagine we’ll make 



“GONE!” 


81 


very good time until we get on the main road. 
This rain must have made more mud puddles 
than usual.’’ 

‘ 4 We ’ll wash the dishes while you’re writing 
the note,” suggested Rick, for, like all Boy 
Scouts, he had been taught to leave a place as he 
found it, and the dishes were clean in the cup¬ 
board at the start of breakfast. 

There was a tank of warm water connected 
with the stove, and the dishes were soon being 
given a sort of rough-and-ready bath. But 
campers are never fussy—if they were they 
wouldn’t be campers. 

4 i There, this will thank them for having taken 
us in,” said Mr. Campbell, as he finished the 
note to the three men. “I’ll leave it on the 
table where they’ll see it when they come back. 
I’ve given them my address in San Francisco, ’ ’ 
he added, “and if they want to send us a bill 
for breakfast I’ll settle it later. But I don’t 
believe they will. Now I’ll go out and get the 
car. ’ ’ 

The shed was out of sight behind the shack, 
and the boys waited a few minutes in front of 
the cabin to hear the hum of the motor as the 
self-starter turned it over. 


82 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


But no such hum sounded and Rick and Chot. 

/ 

who were playing with Ruddy, paused in their 
fun after a few minutes, looking at each other 
while Rick said: 

“Must have trouble getting her going.” 

“Cold after the rain, maybe,” suggested 
Chot. 

4 4 Or there might be water in the carburetor,’ ’ 
said Rick. 

They were about to walk around the shack 
to see if they could be of any help in turning 
on the ignition, as Mr. Campbell might have 
to crank the car, when they saw their friend 
coming around the path that led from the cabin 
to the shed. 

‘ ‘ Boys, did you hear the auto being taken out 
in the night?” he asked. 

“The auto taken?” cried Rick. “No!” 

“Isn’t it there?” asked Chot. 

“No,” answered Mr. Campbell. 

“Where is it?” cried the boys. 

“Gone!” 

“Gone?” * 

“Stolen, I reckon,” said the owner grimly, 
“and I think I can guess who took it.” 


“GONE!” 


83 


“You mean the three men who were here?” 
asked Rick. 

“I’m afraid so—yes. That’s why they 
sneaked off so quietly. They wanted to get 
away in my car. All our stuff gone, too! The 
car’s insured but there’s my baggage, and 
yours, and a lot of valuable documents and a 
patent model I was taking to San Francisco.” 

“Whew!” whistled Rick, and Ruddy came 
running up wondering what his young master 
wanted, for the whistle sounded like a signal. 

“What are you going to do?” asked Chot. 

“We’ll have to take after them,” said Mr. 
Campbell. “I can’t let them get away with 
my things like this! And I must get back your 
baggage, also. That’s the time we slept too 
soundly, lads! Those scoundrels just sneaked 
out when we were in dreamland and took our 
car. Well, there’s no use staying here. We’ll 
have to walk to the nearest town and let the 
police know about the robbery. They must 
have some telephones and telegraph lines out 
here, and maybe we can head off the thieves.” 

“How could they get the car out without 
starting it up?” asked Rick. “Your motor 


84 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


makes quite a noise when it starts, Mr. Camp¬ 
bell, and I should think we’d have heard it.” 

1 * That’s just it—they didn’t start the motor,’ 9 
was the reply. 

“Then how’d they run it off?” 

“They just took off the brake and let her 
coast down hill,” was the answer. “There’s a 
hill leading up into the shed. I noticed it when 
I went in last night. All they had to do was to 
let the car roll down hill—it would coast all the 
wav to the road, I think. And that was far 
enough off so that when they turned on the igni¬ 
tion, as the car was still moving, she started 
without the racket she usually makes. Come 
and I’ll show you.” 

He indicated to the boys the marks of the 
tires in the soft ground—marks that showed 
where Mr. Campbell had driven in, and then 
where the car had been pushed out, steered 
down to the road under gravity and finally 
driven off. 

“Hard luck, but there’s no use worrying,” 
said Mr. Campbell, who was a sort of optimistic 
philosopher. “We’ll just have to take after 
’em—that’s all.” 

“Maybe we can trace the car by the tire 


85 


“GONE!” 

tracks,” said Rick. “There aren’t many cars 
out this way, Mr. Campbell.” 

“Yes, perhaps we can, Rick. Well, let’s get 
started. ’ ’ 

They headed away from the shed, aiming to 
pass around the cabin and take to the road. 
But, as they filed along the path, with Ruddy 
running ahead, Chot suddenly called: 

“I hear a car coming!” 

“Maybe they are coming back,” suggested 
Rick. 

They pressed forward eagerly. 


CHAPTER IX 


THE PURSUIT 

J UST as Mr. Campbell and the boys reached 
the front of the shack in which they had 
spent the night, they saw, stopping in the road 
a short distance away, an automobile of the 
flivver type—old, ramshackle, rusty and covered 
with mud. 

From this battered car leaped several men, 
each one bearing a gun, and it took no more 
than a second glance to reveal to Rick and the 
others that these were not Martin, Elkton and 
Shadd, the self-styled 4 4 lumbermen.* ’ 

Ruddy stopped, stiffened into attention and 
began to growl in a menacing manner. 

4 4 Quiet, Ruddy, ** sharply ordered his master 
and the dog obeyed. 

The men ran forward, with guns held in 
readiness, but before they could shoot, if, in¬ 
deed, such was their intention, and before any¬ 
thing could be said, another car followed the 

first and stopped suddenly. 

86 



THE PURSUIT 


87 


Prom this second car leaped three men who 
seemed anxious to overtake the first party, num¬ 
bering five, who were advancing on Mr. Camp¬ 
bell and the boys. 

“Now we’ve got you!” cried the leader of 
the first party, as he began lowering his 
gun in readiness for action. “Up with your 
hands !’ 1 

“Why, what in the world—” began Mr. 
Campbell. He said afterward he thought it 
was all a joke, and Hick was beginning to won¬ 
der if this had anything to do with the mystery 
of Uncle Tod, when the second party of three 
men overtook the first five, and the evident 
leader of this trio shouted: 

“Wait a minute, Bert! You’re making a 
mistake! ’’ 

“A mistake!” inquired the man who had 
ordered “hands up.” 

“Yes, this is the wrong crowd—can’t you 
see that. Two of ’em are boys and there’s a 
dog!” 

“I see the boys and dog all right,” grumbled 
the one who had given the startling order, “but 
they may belong to the same bunch all right.” 

“I’m afraid not,” said the other. “Looks 


88 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


like they got away—give us the slip. Your 
name Cassidy?” he asked sharply of Mr. Camp¬ 
bell. 

4 ‘No, it isn’t,” was the quiet answer. “But 
what’s this all about, anyhow? And where can 
we get in touch with the police or some one in 
authority ?” 

“What for? Have you captured the rob¬ 
bers ?” asked one of the raiding party eagerly. 

“ Robbers ?” exclaimed Rick and Chot who 
were taking all this in with wondering eyes. 

“As far as robberies go we have one to re¬ 
port ourselves/’ said Mr. Campbell. “My 
auto was taken, during the night, by three men 
who were in this shack.” 

“And those are the very men we’re after!” 
exclaimed the leader of the last-arriving trio. 
“Where are they? Which way did they go? 
If they have your car, and it can travel, we 
may have hard work catching up to them.” 

“I’m afraid you will,” said Mr. Campbell, 
grimly. “But where can I report the theft of 
my car? Where will I find an officer?” 

“Right here,” answered the leader of the 
five men with a chuckle. “We’re all officers. 
That’s Nick Wilson, a deputy sheriff,” he 


THE PURSUIT 


89 


added, indicating the big man who had arrived 
in the car with two others. 4 'I’m a court-house 
constable and these others are special deputies 
we just swore in to help capture the bank rob¬ 
bers.” 

"Bank robbers?” exclaimed Mr. Campbell. 
"Were Martin, Elkton and Shadd robbers?” 

"They were, and desperate ones, too, only 
those aren’t their names,” said Deputy Sheriff 
Wilson. "I guess they go by any names that 
suit ’em, but one of ’em is Cassidy, and the 
other two are Burke and Armstrong. They 
robbed the Frenchtown bank of over fifty thou¬ 
sand dollars last week, and they have been 
traced to this locality. 

"Early this morning we got word that three 
men, answering the description of the bank 
robbers, were out here in this shack. I rounded 
up all the men I could find. Dodge, here, got 
a little ahead of me,” said the deputy sheriff 
with a grin, "but as soon as I saw the two boys 
I knew we were barking up the wrong tree. 
And so the robbers took your car and got away; 
did they ? ’ ’ 

"It looks so,” admitted Mr. Campbell rue¬ 
fully. 


90 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

‘ i Too bad, ’’ said Nick Wilson. ‘ ‘ If you could 
only have held those fellows you’d have been 
in the reward of ten thousand dollars. ’ ’ 

Rick and Chot gasped at this. 

“No use thinking about that now,” said Mr. 
Campbell philosophically. “I’ll be satisfied if 
I can get my car back, and the stuff in it—in¬ 
cluding the baggage of these boys. I’m on my 
way to San Francisco, and Rick and Chot—not 
to forget Ruddy—are going out to their Uncle 
Tod.” 

“He isn’t my uncle,” said Chot. 

“Well, it’s all the same,” explained Mr. 
Campbell with a smile. And then, briefly, he 
told the officers of how they were caught in 
the storm at the broken bridge, and how T they 
had happened to stop at the lonely cabin. 

In turn the deputy sheriff related the story 
of the daring bank robbery. The three men, 
presumably having most of the money with 
them, had come to this hunters’ cabin to hide. 
They had, doubtless, seen their opportunity to 
escape in an auto when Mr. Campbell and the 
boys drove up in their car. 

Welcoming the travelers and making them 
feel at home had lulled our friends’ suspicions 


THE PURSUIT 


91 


! and during the night the robbers had quietly 
slipped out and departed in the Campbell car 
with their booty. 

“And to think we just snoozed and let them 
get away! ’ ’ cried Rick. 

“Isn’t it tough!” bewailed Chot. 

“Well, maybe it isn’t too late yet!” eagerly 
suggested Bert Dodge, the court-house con¬ 
stable. “Let’s take after ’em!” 

“I guess we’d better,” assented the deputy. 
“We’ll try to get your car hack,” he added to 
Mr. Campbell. “You can come along with me 
if you want to,” he added. “Guess I can make 
room for you.” 

“What about the boys!” asked Mr. Camp¬ 
bell. 

Nick Wilson tilted back his hat from his 
grizzled hair and scratched his head. 

“It’s going to be a pretty tight fit,” he ad¬ 
mitted as he looked at the battered and muddy 
car of the constable, and at his own not much 
better and no larger auto. “Yes, it’ll be a 
pretty tight fit, so say nothing of the dog.” 

“I can’t leave Ruddy!” exclaimed Rick. 

“I’d like to go with the officers,” remarked 
Mr. Campbell. “I can then identify my car if 


92 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


we find it. But, even if there were room, Fd 
rather you hoys wouldn’t come. There may 
be shooting—” 

“There will be if we get within distance!” 
declared Mr. Dodge, grimly. 

i ‘If you boys wouldn’t mind waiting here,” 
suggested Mr. Campbell, “it would be better, 
maybe. I know it’s rather hard luck,” he 
added with a smile, as he saw the rueful look 
on Chot’s face, “but it’s what I think your 
folks would want, and I’m responsible for 
you.” 

“Oh, we’ll stay,” offered Rick cheerfully. 
“I wouldn’t go, anywhere, and leave Ruddy be¬ 
hind.” 

“Tell you what,” broke in Mr. Wilson, “you 
boys go back to town and wait for me at my 
office. You can tell the sheriff how things 
turned out, and that will save us time telephon¬ 
ing, ’specially as there isn’t a line around here. 
Go back to my office in the court-house and 
wait. Here, I’ll give you a note to show it’s all 
right. ’ ’ 

He scribbled something on the back of an 
envelope and passed it to Rick. Meanwhile 


THE PURSUIT 


93 


the special deputies were quickly scrambling 
into the autos, Mr. Campbell being invited to 
ride with Nick Wilson and his two helpers, 
while Bert and his four tilled the muddy, ram¬ 
shackle, rusty flivver that he owned. 

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, boys,” called 
Mr. Campbell to Rick and Chot. “We couldn’t 
go on, anyhow, until I get my car again.” 

“Oh, that’s all right,” Rick assured him. 
“We’ll wait in town for you. How far back 
is it?” he asked the deputy sheriff. 

“ ’Bout three miles.” 

“That isn’t far,” admitted Chot. 

“And when you get hungry go to my house 
and tell my wife I sent you,” went on the 
deputy. “She’ll give you a good meal!” 

That sounded very encouraging to the boys 
who had not had anything very substantial 
since dinner the day before. 

Rick, Chot and Ruddy stood in the road in 
front of the shack, and watched the officers start 
in pursuit of the robbers. How much the two 
lads wished they could have had a part in the 
man-hunt, only you boys can imagine. But it 
would not have been wise. 


94 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

“I hope they get ’em,” murmured Chot, as 
the two rattling cars vanished around a turn in 
the highway. 

“So do I,” echoed Rick. “If they do, maybe 
Mr. Campbell will get part of the reward.” 

“How?” 

“Well, the robbers took his car and he gave 
information about them. He ought to get part 
of the reward.” 

“That’s right. I hope he does. Well, let’s 
go on to town. What’s the name of the place, 
anyhow? It can’t be Elmwood, for we were 
heading for that when we got to the broken 
bridge.” 

“No, it’s Fayetville I heard one of the men 
say. Well, I hope this Mrs. Wilson is a good 
cook,” and Rick sighed. 

“Will you go to her house for a meal?” 

“Sure! Why not? Didn’t Mr. Wilson tell 
us to? And it will be better than going to a 
restaurant. We can wash up and comb our 
hair. I feel like a tramp.” 

“So do I. Yet, I guess it will be better to 
go to her house. I’m hungry.” 

“So’m I. Well, come on.” 

The boys and the dog started down the road, 


THE PURSUIT 


95 


while the two flivvers, filled with eager officers, 
kept on in pursuit of the criminals, pausing now 
and then at some lonely farm house to ask if 
the Campbell car had passed. 


CHAPTER X 


A STRANGE DISCOVERY 

G REAT excitement was caused in the Fayet- 
ville court-house when the boys arrived 
with the scribbled note from Deputy Sheriff 
Wilson, and the news that the posse was, even 
then, on the trail of the bank robbers. The 
sheriff himself came out of his office to talk to 
the boys, asking them for all the details they 
could give him. 

“Guess I’d better send some more deputies 
to help Nick and Bert,” said the county official. 
‘‘Those robbers are desperate fellows, and now 
they have a car it’s going to be harder to catch 
them. ’ ’ 

“They not only have a car, but they’ve got 
the things we were going to camp with,” 
lamented Chot. 

“Well, as long as they didn’t take us—and 
Ruddy, we ought to be glad,” laughed Rick. 
“That’s right,” said the sheriff. “They are 

96 


A STRANGE DISCOVERY 


97 


desperate characters. No wonder they were 
suspicious of you when you came on them in 
the storm. But they were quick to see that 
their best plan was to let you in, allow you to 
sleep and then sneak off in your car. However, 
we’ll get ’em all right. I’ll telephone to all the 
places around here to be on the watch. Just 
give me a description of Mr. Campbell’s ma¬ 
chine so I can let other sheriffs and police of¬ 
ficers know what to look for.” 

Between them Rick and Chot supplied a good 
description, even to the numbers on the license 
plates, and this information was soon being 
sent broadcast by telephone and telegraph. 

i i Well, do you boys want to sit around here 
and wait for Mr. Campbell to come back?” 
asked Sheriff Hart, “or what do you want to 
do?” 

“Mr. Wilson said something about going to 
his house,” began Rick, “and if we could—” 

Just then the telephone in the sheriff’s office, 
where this talk was taking place, began ringing 
violently. 

“Hello—hello!” cried the sheriff as he 
snatched off the receiver. He listened in¬ 
tently, saying, meanwhile—“yes—yes! Good! 



98 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


I hope you do! Yes, they’re here! I’ll send 
them up! ’ ’ 

He turned to the boys. 

‘ i That was Nick Wilson,” he said as he hung 
up the receiver. “He says they haven’t got 
any trace of the robbers yet, but they hope to, 
soon, and he says to tell you to go on up to his 
house and eat. I’ll telephone Mrs. Wilson 
you’re coming.” 

“How do you get there!” asked Rick, for 
they were in a strange town. 

“I’ll take you up in my car,” the sheriff 
offered. “Nick wants me to tell his wife he 
won’t be home to dinner. And that will be a 
good opening for me to suggest that you 
boys can take his place at the table,” he added 
with a chuckle. 

“I guess we’re willing,” said Rick, smiling, 
and Chot did his share. 

On the way to the home of the deputy sheriff, 
Chot suggested that something had better be 
done about putting a permanent warning at the 
broken bridge, and the sheriff promised to at¬ 
tend to that. 

Mrs. Wilson proved to be a motherly woman, 


A STRANGE DISCOVERY 


99 


after the boys’ own hearts. She made them 
warmly welcome, and soon became as friendly 
with Ruddy, as the red setter was with her. 

“And oh, boy! What a dinner we had!” 
said Rick afterward with a grateful sigh to 
his chum. “Didn’t we?” 

“I’ll tell the knives and forks!” echoed Chot 
with a grin. 

The boys began to fear that time would hang 
rather heavily on their hands that afternoon, 
as the dinner hour came and went and there 
was no word from Mr. Campbell. They ac¬ 
cepted the invitation of the sheriff to come to 
the court-house for a while, there to await pos¬ 
sible word of the capture of the robbers. 

But as the afternoon wore on, and there was 
no news of any account, save that those in pur¬ 
suit were still on the trail, following different 
clews, the boys decided that it would be more 
fun to wander off by themselves. 

“Take a trolley ride,” advised the sheriff. 
“The trolley goes several miles out into the 
country. You can scout around there and come 
back when you get ready. I reckon you ’ll have 
to stay here all night, anyhow, for, even if w T e 


100 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


do get Mr. Campbell’s car back he won’t hardly 
want to start off without having it looked over. 
Those robbers 11 drive it hard. *’ 

This seemed good advice and the boys took 
it. Very likely Mr. Campbell would not want 
to start right out again, even if those in pursuit 
were lucky enough to overtake, or find the rob¬ 
bers where they might be hiding. 

Promising to come back to Mrs. Wilson’s 
house, where they were invited to remain for 
the night, Rick and Chot started off on the sub¬ 
urban trolley line. To his howling regret 
Ruddy could not accompany the boys, but was 
tied up in a shed at the Wilson home. How¬ 
ever the red setter was somewhat reconciled to 
his lot when Mrs. Wilson provided him with 
plenty of bones to gnaw. Dogs, especially of 
Ruddy’s size, were not allowed on trolley cars. 

4 ‘ Well, we certainly are running into a bunch 
of things,” remarked Chot to his chum as they 
went riding out through the pleasant coun¬ 
try—for it was very pleasant, fresh and de¬ 
lightful after the rain. 

“We sure are!” agreed Rick. “Are you 
glad you came ? ’ ’ He leaned over and punched 
Chot playfully in the ribs. 


c 


« ^ < 


A STRANGE DISCOVERY 


101 


“Am I? Say, you couldn't beat it! And 
think of what's ahead of us, Rick!" 

“What do you mean?" Rick turned and 
looked at his chum. 

“I mean out at Uncle Tod's camp." 

“That's right. There’ll be lots to do there. 
I wish I knew just what he wants of us." 

“Maybe he just did it so we could have a 
good vacation." 

“No, it's more than that," Rick declared. 
“He wouldn't start off the way he did unless 
there was something up—and something queer, 
too. I'd like to know what it is." 

“So would I," agreed Chot. “I hope wait¬ 
ing around like this won't spoil it." 

“I hope not," murmured Rick. “Anyhow 
it's a nice day." 

And it certainly was. The sun was warmly 
shining, rapidly drying up the mud puddles left 
by the recent storm. It was warm, but not 
hot and the boys thoroughly enjoyed the trolley 
ride through the green country which lay out¬ 
side of Fayetville, a prosperous city in the 
midst of a rich farming community. 

“How far do you boys want to go?" asked 
the conductor, as he came in to collect the 


102 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


fourth or fifth fare, the boys could not remem¬ 
ber which, for the line was divided into zones, 
and the fare was taken up for each one. 

‘‘Oh, we’re just riding for fun,” explained 
Rick. 

“To sort of kill time,” added Chot. 

“Is there anything to see around here?” 
Rick wanted to know. 1 ‘ I mean a waterfall, or 
anything like that?” 

“Well, there’s a sort of cave about a mile 
from here,” the conductor said. “It’s off the 
main road and it’s quite a curiosity. -Some¬ 
times on Saturdays picnic parties go there, but 
not many during the week. It’s about a mile 
from the trolley. ’ ’ 

“Let’s go there,” proposed Rick to his chum. 
“Can we get a car back to Fayetville before 
night?” he inquired. 

“Oh, yes,” answered the conductor. “We 
run every half hour up to seven o’clock and 
every hour after that. I’ll tell you where to 
get, off. ’ ’ 

The ride seemed more enjoyable now that the 
boys had a definite object in view, and they ea¬ 
gerly awaited word from the conductor when to 
alight and start across the fields and through a 


A STRANGE DISCOVERY 


103 


patch of woods, on a short cut to the cave, a 
local curiosity. 

44 Here you are, boys!” finally called the 
puller of the bell rope, as the car came to a stop 
amid the squeaking of brakes. 4 4 Just follow 
the path and you can’t miss the cave. There’s 
a wagon road that goes up to it, but that’s 
longer. You can come back the same way you 
go, as the cars always stop here about on the 
even hours and half hours so you’ll know how 
to time yourselves.” 

“Thanks,” murmured Rick and Chot and 
they struck into a field of daisies and buttercups 
which they must traverse, as well as a patch 
of woods, before reaching the cave. 

i ‘ Crackie, but this is great! ’ ’ exclaimed Chot 
as he ran and jumped on the springy turf. 

“Nothing better!” agreed Rick, and he 
turned a hand spring in the abundance of his 
good feeling. Then Rick saw something down 
in the grass which he began pulling up and 
chewing. 

“What is it?” asked Chot. 

“Sheep sorrel,” was the answer. “I like a 
bit of sour stuff.” 

“So do I,” agreed his chum, and soon they 


104 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


were chewing the tender light green leaves of 
the sorrel, a plant not unlike the Irish sham¬ 
rock in shape of foliage, but quite different in 
character. 

A little of this “sour grass,’’ however, was 
enough for the boys, and they looked for other 
things with which they were familiar. They 
crossed the field, and before striking into the 
woods came to a sluggish brook. 

“ ’Tisn’t big enough to have a swim in,” 
said Chot, regretfully. 

“No, and doesn’t look clean enough,” added 
Rick. “But there’s some sweet flag,” he went 
on eagerly. “Let’s pull some.” 

In a place where the brook widened out into 
a swampy place grew tall spears of green, not 
unlike the foliage of “cat tails,” those brown 
drum-sticks that many persons gather for or¬ 
naments. However these green spears were of 
a different character, for their roots formed 
the medicinal calamus , called by country folk 
“sweet flag.” Calamus has a pleasant taste, 
though it is rather biting if taken in too great 
quantity. The root, dried, is often used in 
medicine, and old-fashioned people used to 
carry a bit in their pockets to nibble. 


A STRANGE DISCOVERY 


105 


When I was a boy I would gather sweet flag, 
cut the roots into thin sections and bake it in 
the oven with sugar. It was better this way, 
though too much of it was not good for one. 

Rick and Chot pulled some of the green stalks 
and ate the tender inner part that was not as 
strong as the actual root itself. They also 
found watercress, but this was not good with¬ 
out salt and they passed it by. 

In the woods they discovered sassafras and 
birch bark, nibbling some of each and they also 
saw a lone crow which mournfully cawed at 
them, reminding Rick of the crow Ruddy had 
once found in the wood disabled, which black 
bird Rick had taken home and tamed, naming 
it “Haw Haw.” 

Finally the boys emerged from the wood and 
came to a lonely road, which did not show signs 
of much travel. 

“This must be the road where the cave is,’’ 
suggested Chot. 

“I guess so,” agreed Rick. 

They walked along it for about a quarter of a 
mile, following the trolley car conductor’s di¬ 
rections, and then turned into a gully, up which, 
they had been told, was the cave. 


106 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


And, as they turned into this gully, or gulch 
the boys saw in the soft earth of the road, the 
marks of automobile tires. 

“Look! Look at that!” cried Chot ex¬ 
citedly. 

“They’re just like the tires on Mr. Camp¬ 
bell’s car,” added Rick. * 

Eagerly they ran on, turning into the rocky 
and weed-choked road that led from the main 
highway into the gulch. And they had no more 
than swung around the turn than they made a 
strange discovery. 

For there, in front of them, was an automo¬ 
bile turned on its side. And it needed but a 
second glance to make them aware that it was 
Mr. Campbell’s car. It bore his license plates, 
and among the baggage spilled from it were the 
boys’ valises. 



In front of them was an automobile turned on its side 


•AJh 






/ 


CHAPTER XI 

UNCLE TOD’S CAMP 

F OR several seconds Rick and Chot stood 
there silent—gazing at the astonishing 
sight which met their eyes. For it was aston¬ 
ishing—to think that they should thus unex¬ 
pectedly come upon the stolen auto for which so 
many officers were searching. 

Good luck had attended their whim to take a 
trolley ride and visit the cave. But now all 
interest in the cave va'nished. Their whole at¬ 
tention was centred on the overturned auto, 
which lay on one side in a tangle of bushes and 
small trees. 

“They tried to make too short a turn and up¬ 
set, ’ ’ was Rick’s opinion. 

“Yes,” agreed Chot as an examination of 
the ground, showing where the wheels had 
skidded in soft sand and mud, bore this idea 
out. 

Then a new thought came to the boys, 

though Rick was the first to express it. 

107 


108 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

“Maybe they’re there now,” he said. “Un¬ 
der the car.’ ’ 

“Dead!” asked Chot in an awed voice. 

“Maybe.” 

“Let’s look.” 

“Better not.” 

“Why!” 

“The coroner, or somebody like that, always 
has to be first to look at a dead body. That’s 
the law. ’ ’ 

It wasn’t, exactly, but it was near enough. 

“But maybe some of ’em are there—hurt,” 
suggested Chot. “If they are we’d better—” 

“I’m not going to get shot!” objected his 
chum. “They’ve got guns, it’s likely.” 

“They can’t shoot if they’re hurt,” reasoned 
Chot. “Come on, let’s look.” 

“I wish we had Ruddy here,” voiced Rick. 

‘‘ It would be better, ’ ’ agreed his chum. ‘ ‘ But 
I reckon it’s all right; I don’t hear a sound, and 
if any of ’em was hurt we’d hear groans.” 

“Unless they were unconscious,” Rick said. 

However they listened and heard not so much 
as a whisper coming from the overturned car. 
Then they plucked up courage to go nearer. 
Still no sound—no motion—nothing. 



UNCLE TOD’S CAMP 


109 


44 The car isn’t broken much, as far as I can 
see, ’ ’ said Rick in a low voice. 

44 That’s good—maybe it’ll run after its 
turned right side up,” spoke Chot. 

They had now approached close enough to 
make sure that no one—certainly no wounded 
or injured bank robbers—were in the over¬ 
turned car. There was a little pool of blood on 
the ground, however, which seemed to indicate 
that some one had been hurt. But of the men 
there was not a trace. And, as far as the boys 
could see, none of their baggage or Mr. Camp¬ 
bell’s was missing—at least none of the large 
pieces. 

44 Maybe they’re hiding in the cave,” sug¬ 
gested Chot. 

44 Who?” 

44 The bank robbers.” 

44 That’s so,” agreed Rick, with an uneasy 
glance at the dark and brush-choked entrance 
to the cavern. 4 4 If Ruddy was here he could 
soon tell.” 

44 But if he went in they might shoot him.” 

44 That’s right. I’m glad we didn’t bring 
him. ‘Say, we’d better go back and tell the 
sheriff about this.” 



110 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Sure we had,” assented the other lad. 
Pausing only long enough to walk around the 
car again, and to make sure that most, if not 
all of their belongings were there, the boys hur¬ 
ried back through the woods, across the fields 
and to the place where they had alighted from 
the trolley car. They were lucky enough to see 
coming the very electric vehicle they had taken 
out from Fayetville. 

“You didn’t stay long at the cave,” remarked 
the conductor, who was on his return trip. 

“No, but we found something,” said Rick, 
and they told their story. 

“You’d better telephone in when we get to 
Roseland,” suggested the trolley man, naming 
the nearest village. “Then you can wait and 
take the sheriff right to the place. ’ ’ 

It seemed sound advice and the boys fol¬ 
lowed it. The sheriff was astonished and, in a 
measure, disappointed at the news. Astonished 
because no one of his officers had thought of 
looking in the direction of the cave, and disap¬ 
pointed because it was evident that the robbers 
had escaped. They had probably fled when the 
car overturned, injuring one of them, if not 


more. 


UNCLE TOD’S CAMP 


111 


“ Unless maybe they’re in the cave,” sug¬ 
gested Rick over the telephone. 

“We’ll soon find that out,” said the sheriff 
grimly. 

The boys waited in the Roseland store from 
which they had telephoned, the sheriff telling 
them he would call for them there and take 
them on to the cave. And Rick and Chot were 
the centre of a group of wondering and eager 
men and boys who gathered when news spread 
of the locating of the car in which the robbers 
had fled. 

In due time Sheriff Hart and some of his 
constables arrived, and a small cavalcade fol¬ 
lowed him and his party out to the cave. There 
were some tense moments as officers, with ready 
guns, entered the cavern calling on the rob¬ 
bers to surrender. But there was no answer, 
and no shots and when lights were brought and 
the cave examined there was no trace of the 
criminals. 

“Probably they didn’t go in there at all,” 
said the sheriff. “They may have headed for 
this hiding place, but when they turned too 
quick, and upset, they just naturally scattered. 
Well, we’ll get ’em yet!” 


112 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


Many hands made light work of righting the 
overturned auto, which, aside from some dents 
and scratches, was little the worse for what 
had happened. It was in running order and 
one of the officers drove it back to Fayetville, 
much to the delight of Rick and Chot. 

When the party of which Mr. Campbell was 
an unofficial member next telephoned to the 
court-house, asking ifor news and reporting 
that they had none to impart, the finding of the 
auto was related to them, and they were advised 
to return and take up the search from the 
cave; looking for men afoot rather than for 
a trio of bank robbers in an auto. 

4 ‘ Well, boys, you certainly brought me good 
luck!” exclaimed Mr. Campbell as he greeted 
Rick and Chot on his return. “I had about 
given up my car, and all in it, as gone forever. 
But there isn’t a thing missing of any account, 
and though the machine is a bit battered she’ll 
run all right. ’ ’ 

Some slight repairs were needed and it was 
decided that the boys and Mr. Campbell would 
remain over night in Fayetville, going on next 
day. Meanwhile the search for the robbers 
was continued by the sheriff and his officers. 


UNCLE TOD’S CAMP 


113 


It was assumed that the bank looters had in¬ 
tended to hide in the cave with the auto until 
it was safe to venture out and depart for some 
other locality. But fate had played against 
them, as it did to the end, for, eventually, they 
were caught and sentenced to long terms in 
prison. 

Rick and Chot hoped they might find some of 
the stolen money in the auto, for they wished 
the thrill of returning it to the rightful own¬ 
ers, but this was not to be. There was not so 
much as a stray penny. 

“Well, I guess we’re ready to start off once 
more,” said Mr. Campbell next day when the 
auto had been put in good order and repacked 
with their belongings. “Uncle Tod will be 
wondering what has become of you, ’ ’ he added. 

“Mother wrote and told him we might be de¬ 
layed on the road,” said Rick. “But I’ll be 
glad to get to his camp.” 

“So’ll I,” added Chot. 

“Not but what we’re having a dandy time!” 
Rick hastened to say, for fear Mr. Campbell 
might think he was not grateful. “But I want 
to find out what it is Uncle Tod wants us to 
do.” 


114 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“I don’t blame you,” said Mr. Campbell. 

“I don’t believe anything more exciting can 
happen there than what we’ve already had,” 
said Chot. 

But he was mistaken, as he had to admit 
later. 

The next two days were rather quiet ones. 
The party, including Ruddy, of course, who 
was glad to be back with his master and the 
latter’s chum, journeyed on, up over the moun¬ 
tain passes and soon found themselves in the 
Great West. I use capitals because that is 
how it always impresses me and how it im¬ 
pressed Rick and Chot. They had never been 
there before and it was a wonderful revela¬ 
tion to them. 

“Well, 1 shall hate to lose you boys—you’ve 
been jolly good traveling companions,” said 
Mr. Campbell when, one afternoon, they 
reached the town nearest to where Uncle Tod 
had said he could be found. 

“We’ll miss you, too,” said Rick. “But I 
guess we’ll find plenty to do.” 

“I haven’t any doubt of it,” chuckled Mr. 
Campbell. “Well, we’d better stop here and 



UNCLE TOD'S CAMP 


115 


inquire how to get to your uncle’s place,” he 
remarked, as they reached a forked road in 
a lonely section. “We don’t want to run up 
against any more broken bridges.” 

They saw approaching a man riding a mule 
—a man who looked to be a typical prospector 
or miner. Hung about him, fore and aft on 
the saddle was a collection of implements and 
camp stuff—a kettle, frying pan, shovel, pick 
and a roll of what might be a pup tent and 
bedding. 

“Good afternoon, strangers,” greeted the 
prospector, pleasantly. 

Mr. Campbell returned the salutation and 
asked: 

“Do you know where a Mr. Belmont has a 
camp around here? A Mr. Toddingham Bel¬ 
mont?” 

“Toddingham Belmont,” repeated the pros¬ 
pector in puzzled accents. 

“Uncle Tod I call him,” said Rick. 

“Oh, him—Uncle Tod! Yes, yes! Now I 
know who you mean! Uncle Tod, oh, yes!” 
and he laughed. “His camp’s about a mile 
beyond that lone pine,” he said, pointing up 


116 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


the trail. “He and Sam Rockford are there 
—if you want to find them,” he added after 
a significant pause. 

“Why shouldn’t we want to find them?” 
asked Mr. Campbell, struck by a queer expres¬ 
sion on the prospector’s face. “We have 
come a long way to locate them—at least these 
boys have.” 

“Oh, all right. It’s none of my business,” 
said the other quickly. ‘■‘Of course if you 
want to throw in with a couple of —crazy loons 
—why, that’s your affair—not mine.” 

“Crazy loons!” exclaimed Mr. Campbell, 
4 ‘ what do you mean ? ’ ’ 

“Well you ask anybody around here if a 
couple of men trying to wait for Lost River to 
come back, aren’t crazy, and if they don’t say 
they are, I’ll eat my mule’s ears—that’s what 
I’ll do!” offered the prospector. “As crazy 
as loons—that’s what they are! I’ll eat my 
mule’s ears! I sure will!” 


CHAPTER XII 


LOST RIVER 

N OT knowing exactly how to reply to this 
sort of talk, and hardly understanding 
w T hat the man meant by it, Rick and Chot said 
nothing. Mr. Campbell was silent for a mo¬ 
ment, looking at the prospector on his mule as 
he made off down the mountain trail. 

“So you think Uncle Tod is crazy, eh?” 
finally asked Mr. Campbell. 

“I don’t think it—I know it,” came the an¬ 
swer with a chuckle. “And so’s Sam Rock¬ 
ford—he’s crazier than Tod if such a thing can 
be. Go on, Salamander!” This last was 
called to the mule which ambled on with many 
a clatter and clang of the prospector’s out¬ 
fit. 

“Well, boys, does this discourage you?” 
asked Mr. Campbell, when the old man and 
his mule were out of sight around a turn in 
the trail. 


117 


118 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


4 4 It does not!” cried Rick, cheerfully. 
“Once upon a time I thought Uncle Tod was 
crazy, hut it turned out all right.” 

“And I have no doubt but what it will this 
time, Rick. We’ll go on to your uncle’s camp. 
I’m glad we have found it with no further 
trouble,” said Mr. Campbell. 

“I’m afraid we’ve been quite a bother to 
you, Mr. Campbell,” remarked Rick, as the 
auto was again sent climbing the mountain 
trail. 

“Oh, not at all,” was the answer. “In 
fact you have been good company for me. It 
would have been mighty lonesome coming all 
this distance alone, and I didn’t have to get 
much off my trail to come here. It’s been a 
pleasure.” 

“Well, we had fun out of it, anyhow,” said 
Chot. “But say, what do you s’pose he 
means, saying your Uncle Tod and that other 
man are crazy?” asked Chot of Rick. 

“I don’t know,” was the reply. “I never 
heard of this Sam Rockford, though my folks 
may know him.” 

“I suppose he is your uncle’s partner,” 
suggested Mr. Campbell. “As for this pros- 


LOST RIVER 


119 


pector saying other people are crazy—well, 
I’ve had some experience out here in the west. 
There is a class of man who, as soon as some 
one differs from them, at once jump to the 
idea that the other fellow is as crazy as a loon. 
Maybe the other man doesn’t do his mining 
in the same way as do most of the miners— 
the result is he gets the name of being crazy. 

“And from what you tell me of your Uncle 
Tod, Rick, I’d say he wouldn’t follow in the 
same old rut if he found a better way to do a 
job. He’d take a new trail and that might re¬ 
sult in his being called crazy.” 

“I guess that’s it,” agreed Rick. 

“So don’t pay too much attention to what 
this prospector said,” went on Mr. Campbell 
with a laugh. 

“I should say not!” agreed Chot. “We’re 
out here for a good time!” 

“But I guess Uncle Tod wants us to help 
him do something,” said Rick, “though I don’t 
know what it is.” 

“We’ll soon find out,” remarked Mr. Camp¬ 
bell. 

Following the directions given them by the 
prospector aboard the mountain-climbing mule 


120 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


Salamander, the three in the auto kept on 
up the trail, which wound over a fairly good 
road. They made quite an ascent, and then 
dipped down into a valley—a pleasant valley 
which seemed as though it ought to have a 
stream running through it. But there was no 
sign of water, save, here and there, small 
pools, while in other places there were indi¬ 
cations of brooks that had dried up, leaving 
only a bed of stones and gravel. 

Emerging from a patch of woods, the road 
forked sharply and as the prospector had said 
nothing about this, Mr. Campbell stopped, un¬ 
certain which turning to take. 

‘‘ Well, boys, what is it, left or right he 
asked. There was no sign-post or other 
travelers’ signal to guide them. 

Neither Rick nor Chot could tell as thev had 

•/ 

never been here before, nor had their compan¬ 
ion. It was getting late in the afternoon, and 
Mr. Campbell was anxious to drive the boys 
to Uncle Tod’s camp by night, for he was in 
somewhat of a hurry to get back on his own 
trail, that would lead him to San Francisco. 

“I think that prospector was crazy, if you 
ask me,” remarked Chot, as they looked unde- 


LOST RIVER 


121 


cidedly at the forking road. “Why didn’t he 
tell us which trail to take?” 

“He might have, and not strained his intel¬ 
lect,” chuckled Mr. Campbell. 

“Say!” suddenly cried Rick, “isn’t that a 
flag up there?” 

He pointed off toward the hilly side of the 
valley at the left. 

The others strained their eyes and Chot 
made out something fluttering through the 
leafy branches of trees. 

“It does look like a flag,” he said. 

Mr. Campbell had field glasses in the car 
and, taking an observation through them, he 
was able to declare: 

“It is a flag flying. Some one must be 
there, and though it may not be your Uncle 
Tod they perhaps can tell us where to find 
him. We’ll head for the flag.” 

This they did, taking the left trail, and a 
little later they came to a sort of plateau jut¬ 
ting out from the sloping side of the mountain 
valley. On this plateau, or shelf, which was 
several miles in extent, was located a camp, 
consisting of a comfortable-looking log cabin, 
a small tent and a slab shack, open on one 


122 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


side. In this shack stood a mule that might 
have been a twin to Salamander, and a bat¬ 
tered and rusty flivver. Scattered about were 
various objects—picks, shovels and some 
pieces of apparatus the use of which Rick and 
Chot could only guess at. From a tall tree, 
stripped of all lower branches and growing in 
front of the cabin, floated a United States 
flag, a most welcome sign in that wilderness. 

But what attracted the attention of the boys, 
no less than that of Mr. Campbell, was not 
so much the camp, the flag (glorious as that 
emblem was) or the mule, but the sight of two 
men sitting in dejected fashion in front of 
what seemed a tunnel or cave leading into the 
side of the mountain. 

And as he caught a view of the fa<5e of one 
of these men Rick joyfully cried: 

44 Uncle Tod!” 

The owner of the name, for he it was, 
seemed startled from a deep train of thought, 
his companion likewise rousing himself from 
a reverie that the arrival of the touring auto 
had not broken for either. Then Uncle Tod 
cried: 


LOST RIVER 


123 


“Rick and Ruddy! Shiver my grub stake, 
it’s Rick and Ruddy!” 

“How are you, Uncle Tod?” cried the lad 
as he leaped from the auto, while Ruddy, who 
followed, frisked about his master’s relative 
and also made quick friends with the other 
man. ‘ ‘ How are you ? ’ ’ 

“Oh, so-so to middling,” answered Mr. Bel¬ 
mont as he put his aim around Rick’s shoul¬ 
der. “And you brought Chot along, too! 
That’s fine.” He looked questioningly to¬ 
ward Mr. Campbell, and Rick made the intro¬ 
duction. 

“This is my partner, Sam Rockford,” said 
Uncle Tod, indicating rather a gloomy-appear- 
ing individual who shuffled from his seat in 
front of the log cabin. “Well, Rick, you and 
Ruddy got here at last. Have any trouble?” 

“Oh, not much,” said Mr. Campbell. 

“But why did you send for me in such a 
queer way?” asked Rick, “and why did you go 
off in such a hurry? What’s it all about?” 

“I’ll tell you when I get around to it,” was 
the answer. “It’s a queer story, but maybe 
we can get to the bottom of it now. Just at 


124 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


present, though, we ’re up a stump, so to speak. 
Stuck—at the end of the trail—badgered—up 
against it—anything you like to call it—eh, 
Sam!” and he looked at his partner. 

4 ‘You said it,” came in gloomy tones from 
the other. “Might as well call it a day’s work 
and quit, I guess. I don’t want any more of 
scouting around in that hole,” and he nodded 
toward the black opening that seemed to lead 
into a mountain cavern. 

“What’s it all about,” asked Rick in won¬ 
derment, while Ruddy nosed here and there, 
trying to make himself at home. 

“Lost River—that’s what it’s about,” an¬ 
swered Uncle Tod. “Lost River, and until 
we find it we’re in bad shape.” 

“What do you mean—a lost river?” asked 
Rick. Who lost it and where was it lost?” 

“Ought to be easy to find a lost river,” re¬ 
marked Chot. 

“Not so easy as it seems,” said gloomy Sam 
Rockford, and the boys were to learn that he 
was always this way—the least upsetting of 
his plans, or those of his friends, made him 
utter the most dire predictions. And he was 
always ready to quit at the least sign of op- 



LOST RIVER 


125 


position. Though when matters went right he 
was the most jolly of companions. “We’ll 
never see it again,” he added, desperately. 

“But wbat’s it all about?” persisted Rick. 
“Where is the lost river?” 

“It was there,” and Uncle Tod pointed to 
the mouth of the cavern. “Where it is now 
nobody knows—I wish we did, for without it 
our mine isn’t worth a pinch of snuff. I don’t 
know, Rick—maybe I’m crazy as some say I 
am, but I had an idea if I sent for you and 
Ruddy we could find Lost River. That’s why 
I telegraphed you to come—to help me find 
Lost River. It’s in there—somewhere,” and 
again he pointed to the cavern, “but where, 
Sam and I can’t discover. Maybe, with the 
help of Ruddy—” 

“Hark!” suddenly interrupted Sam in less 
gloomy tones than before. “Hark! I think 
I hear something!” 




CHAPTER XIII 


THE DRY MINE 

S AM ROCKFORD turned his head to bring 
one ear—evidently his best—to bear on 
the black, tunnel-like opening in the side of 
the mountain. His listening attitude was im¬ 
itated by the others. 

There were a few moments of tense silence, 
even Ruddy standing at * ‘ attention ’ ’ in re¬ 
sponse to a lifted finger on the part of Rick. 
Then Uncle Tod remarked: 

“I don’t hear anything but the wind.” 
“Reckon that’s all it was,” said Sam, gloom¬ 
ily. “I thought, for a minute, I heard the 
water coming back through the tunnel,” he 
went on. 

“Is that what’s the trouble!” asked Mr. 
Campbell, with a more ready understanding 
of western matters than that possessed by 
Rick or Chot. 

“That’s it—yes, sir,” answered Uncle Tod, 

126 


THE DRY MINE 


127 


and this time his voice was almost as gloomy 
as that of Sam Rockford’s. “We’re up 
against a dry mine, and the ore is of such a 
nature that water is the only thing that will 
make it pay. A dry mine—that’s what we’re 
up against.” 

“But why did you tackle a dry mine!” 
asked Mr. Campbell. 

“ ’Twa’n’t dry when we tackled it,” sadly 
observed Sam. “It was as good a prospect as 
heart could wish when I spent my money and 
yours in it, wa’n’t it Uncle Tod?” he ap¬ 
pealed. 

“It sure was, Sam,” agreed the other. 

“And then, all of a sudden, the water pe¬ 
tered out,” went on Mr. Rockford, gloomily 
shaking his head. “I sent word to Jake 
Teeter to give you the message,” he added. 

“Yes, and Jake did—in his usual mysteri¬ 
ous way,” said Uncle Tod. 

“Oh, was that the message wrapped in a 
cabbage leaf?” asked Rick, eagerly. “We’ve 
been wondering about that.” 

“Yes,” said Uncle Tod. “There wasn’t 
any need of letting me know in that crazy, 
old-time Indian fashion, but Jake Teeter al- 


128 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


ways was that way—he never comes right out 
and says anything straight. If he wanted to 
let you know he’d been to the post office and 
got a letter for you, and you happened to be 
in with a crowd of others, what do you reckon 
Jake’d do?” asked Uncle Tod. 

“I haven’t the least idea,” answered Mr. 
Campbell, for the question seemed to be di¬ 
rected at him. 

“Well,” went on Uncle Tod, “Jake, instead 
of coming right out and handing you the let¬ 
ter, openly, would attract your attention, 
somehow, by making signs. Then, when he 
got you out of the crowd, he’d slip you the 
missive as if it was something contraband.” 

“Why?” asked Mr. Campbell with a chuckle. 

“Oh, it’s just his mysterious way of doing 
things. He lives on the sign language— 
picked it up from the Indians—he camped 
among ’em a good many years, ’ ’ explained 
Uncle Tod. “Why, you’d hardly believe it, but 
Jake, instead of telling you grub was ready, 
would sneak up to you, and cautiously show you 
a knife and fork sticking in an inside pocket, 
somewhat like he’d taken it off a hotel table 
without the waitress seeing him. Oh, Jake’s 



THE DRY MINE 129 

the limit when it comes to sending mysterious 
messages.” 

“And did he send you the stone and the‘bul¬ 
let in the cabbage leaf—the bullet with the 
word 'come’ on it?” Rick wanted to know. 

“He did,” answered Uncle Tod. “So you 
puzzled out the ‘come’; did you? Not easy 
unless you happen to hit on it, but I happen to 
know Jake’s queer ways. He could just as 
well have rung the bell and told me that Sam 
wanted me to hurry out here.” 

“What was the stone?” asked Rick. 

‘ c Piece of ore from this mine,’ 9 answered his 
uncle. 

“Gold?” asked Mr. Campbell quickly. 

“Copper,” was the reply, “though we hope 
to strike the yellow boys later on.” 

“Won’t now—not with the river gone back 
on us,” declared Gloomy Sam, as the boys 
nicknamed him. 

“Maybe we can get Lost River to flow again,” 
said Uncle Tod more cheerfully. “That’s why 
I sent for you, Rick. You helped me a lot in 
my salt mining,” he added, “and I believe 
you’re sort of lucky to have around a dig¬ 
ging.” 



130 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“I think you’re right, Mr. Belmont,” ob¬ 
served Mr. Campbell. “Rick and Chot found 
my lost car,” and, briefly, he explained about 
the bank robbers. 

“There! What’d I tell you?” cried Uncle 
Tod to his partner. “I said Rick was like a 
vlucky penny to have around.” 

“Um,” was all the reply Mr. Rockford made. 

“But, Uncle Tod,” resumed Rick, “you 
went off pretty mysteriously yourself. Why 
was that?” 

“I had good reasons,” came the answer. 

‘ 4 There’s something queer about this mine, and 
there is a certain crowd of men trying either 
to get it away from us or make us give up the 
fight here and quit. As I didn’t want them 
to know of my movements I just sneaked off 
here quietly to join Sam, who told his friend 
Jake Teeter to summon me. It was Jake who 
stuck in the mysterious business when he 
didn’t need to. Though perhaps I might have 
left word with your mother that I was going, 
Rick. But I was in a hurry, and all worked 
up by Jake’s bullet summons, and lots of 
things slipped my mind. 

“You see,” went on Uncle Tod, “after I 


THE DRY MINE 


131 


bought this mine, and laid claim to it, taking 
in Sam Rockford as a partner, there were ru¬ 
mors that we’d be dished out of it. There 
were threats of claim-jumpers and things like 
that, and some talk about taking away our 
water rights. 

“But as nothing like this happened we be¬ 
gan to think it wouldn’t, and so I thought I 
could leave things in Sam’s hands and go 
east. I left word with him, however, to send 
me word if any rascals out here tried any of 
their tricks, though I hardly believed they 
would. It seems they have, but I didn’t 
reckon Sam would send me word in any such 
theatrical way as Jake managed it. 

“I reckon Jake was going that way any¬ 
how and he offered to let me know. Sam was 
glad of this chance, for Sam isn’t much on 
writing letters and he’s worse on sending tele¬ 
grams. So he left it to Jake and Jake just 
naturally couldn’t resist trying some of his 
old Indian sign tricks. I’m sorry if it worried 
you. ’ ’ 

“Crickets! I thought it was nifty!” cried 
Rick. 

“So did I!” agreed Chot. 


132 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Well,” went on Uncle Tod, “I’m glad you 
looked at it that way. I only hope I didn’t 
make Schotzie nervous,” he remarked, giving 
Rick’s mother a pet nickname he had devised 
for her in some odd fashion. “You see I was 
sort of looking for some word from Sam, and 
when you boys burst in on me, when I was 
asleep in the yard that day, I thought maybe 
you had the message.” 

“That’s when you said: i Has it come?’ ” re¬ 
marked Rick. 

“That was it,” said Uncle Tod, and he re¬ 
sumed : 

“Once I got here and found how matters lay 
I decided to send for you. One reason was 
I wanted to give you a good vacation, and let 
you have a taste Of the west, since you al¬ 
ways said you wanted to come out here.” 

“I did,” confessed Rick, “and you can’t 
know how thankful I am to you for letting me 
come. ’ ’ 

“So’m I,” chimed in Chot. 

“Well, I just wanted you to come, and I 
wanted Ruddy, too,” went on Uncle Tod. 
“Maybe you can help us.” 


THE DRY MINE 


133 


“Nobody can!” declared Mr. Rockford, de- 
pres singly. 

“Oh, dry up!” chided Uncle Tod with a 
laugh that took the sting out of the words. 

“Um! That's what Lost River did—dried 
up,” grunted Sam. 

“Well, I guess most of the mysterious busi¬ 
ness is explained,” said Mr. Campbell, refer¬ 
ring to the cabbage leaf message. 

“Yes,” assented Uncle Tod, “I reckon you 
did puzzle over it for a spell, but it wasn't 
my intentions, or my doings, even though I 
did sneak off quietly and, in that way, I may 
have added to it.” 

“You did,” declared Rick. “And mother 
will be glad when she hears it's all right. 
Mazie was afraid it was the Black Hand, or 
something like that after you, Uncle Tod.” 

“No, nothing like that!” chuckled the old 
sailor. “But shucks! Here I go on talking 
and you folks probably want grub,” he ex¬ 
claimed. “My manners must have gone pros¬ 
pecting with Lost River. Come on in, Mr. 
Campbell,” he invited, waving his hand to¬ 
ward the cabin. “We can put you up for the 


134 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


night, and our grub isn’t the worst in the 
world. ’ ’ 

“Oh, I’m not fussy, but are you sure you 
can put me up? I did count on keeping on, 
but it’s getting late and I don’t know this 
locality. I could push on—” 

“No you don’t!” said Mr. Rockford with 
more enthusiasm than he had shown any time 
since the newcomers had met him. “You just 
bunk here. I’ll get something to eat,” and he 
began to bustle about with an energy and show 
of cheerfulness that was in strange and pleas¬ 
ant contrast with his former actions. 

“Stay and eat hearty,” whispered Uncle 
Tod. “Sam loves to cook and get up a meal. 
He’s never happier than when he’s doing it, 
and it will take his mind oft our troubles. 
Stay, Mr. Campbell. You’re in no great rush; 
are you?” 

“No, I don’t know’s I am.” 

“All right, just run your car under the shed 
there with my old flivver and Esmerelda— 
that’s the mule. I reckon there’s room for 
all three. Though as a matter of fact you 
could leave it in the open—we don’t get any 
rain to speak of at this season.” 


THE DRY MINE 


135 


“Well, Pll just run it under the shed,” said 
the owner of the car, and this he did, after 
taking out the boys’ valises and his own over¬ 
night bag. 

Meanwhile Sam Rockford was in his ele¬ 
ment, and he actually whistled as he built a 
fire and started to get supper, for it was now 
about time for that meal. 

“How long since Lost River ceased flowing!” 
asked Mr. Campbell, as he and the boys sat 
with Uncle Tod in front of the cabin, while 
waiting for “grub.” 

“It stopped a few days before Jake, in his 
crazy fashion, tossed the bullet and chunk of 
ore over your back fence, Rick,” answered the 
miner. “I didn’t tell your folks, Rick, but 
what happened was this: After my salt hold¬ 
ings were established I looked around for 
something to invest my money in, and when 
my former partner, Sam, told me about this 
claim out here he and I bought it. 

“Then there was a good stream of water 
flowing out of the hole in the side of the moun¬ 
tain, and water is the one thing we need here 
to make mining in this locality worth while. 
I came out here, Sam and I established this 


136 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


camp and things were going fine when I left 
to pay your folks another visit, Rick,” said 
Uncle Tod. 4 4 Then, like lightning out of a 
clear sky, came the message from Sam and 
when I got here I found that Lost River had 
ceased running. Of course that put our mine 
up the flume." 

“Did it ever stop flowing before?" asked 
Mr. Campbell. 

“Not in a good many years. In fact no¬ 
body around here ever remembers when it 
wasn't running," answered Uncle Tod. “But 
I ought to have suspicioned something, on ac¬ 
count of the name—Lost River." 

“Then you didn't give it that name?" 

44 Shucks, no! It's been called that since the 
earliest days. I reckon, maybe, it had a habit 
of appearing and disappearing," said Uncle 
Tod. 44 But we didn't think it would act up 
this way with us—Sam and I didn't. How^ 
ever, it has, and unless we can get some water 
here our mine won't amount to anything. In 
fact the stuff is so fine—copper and gold— 
that it needs water to wash it out of the dirt. 
And as it is we can barely get enough water 
to cook with—and wash—once in a while. We 




THE DRY MINE 137 

have to haul it on Esmerelda’s back in casks 
from a creek three miles away.” 

“No fun in that,” said Mr. Campbell. 

“You said it!” exclaimed Uncle Tod heart¬ 
ily. “A dry mine, when it ought to be a wet 
one is the worst kind. But I’m hoping for the 
best.” 

“No use—grub’s ready,” said Sam, gloom¬ 
ily, and almost in the same breath. “Might 
as well pull up stakes and quit,” he added. 

“Not now—since Rick and Ruddy have 
come!” laughed Uncle Tod. “I tell you they 
are going to bring good luck! I’m sure of 
it!” 

As they arose to go in the cabin and eat, a 
noise down the path attracted their attention, 
and Rick had a glimpse of a roughly-dressed 
man approaching. It appeared that he had 
tried to come up the trail unseen and unheard 
for as Rick and the others looked he seemed 
to be ready to dodge behind a tree. But his 
foot dislodged a bit of rock that rattled down 
the hill. Uncle Tod called out: 

“Come on out in the open, Zeek! We see 
you! ’ ’ 


CHAPTER XIV 


INTO THE CAVERN 



ONDERING what turn events were go- 


f ¥ ing to take, Rick and Chot awaited the 
outcome of the advent of the stranger who had 
been addressed by Uncle Tod as “Zeek.” 

“Who is he?” whispered Rick to his uncle 
as the roughly-attired man, seeming rather 
crestfallen over his sneaking tactics, ap¬ 
proached more openly. 

‘ ‘ Oh, a no-account chap—Zeek Took his 
name is. Ought to be Zeek Take, for he’ll 
walk off with anything that isn’t nailed fast 
—unless you watch him. Looking for me, 
Zeek!” he asked as the unprepossessing fellow 
shambled forward. 

“Sorter,” was the grinning answer. 

“Well, here I am,” went on Uncle Tod. 
“What is it?” 

“Er—now—did the water come?” asked 
Zeek, shuffling his feet like a bashful school- 


138 


INTO THE CAVERN 


139 


boy speaking a Friday afternoon 4 ‘ pieced ’ 

i ‘No, we’re still dry, Zeek, except for what 
water we tote np on Esmerelda’s back. But 
I guess we have enough to give you a drink.” 

“Oh, no, thanks, I don’t want no drink!” 
Zeek hastily protested, and Rick said, after¬ 
ward, that he might have asked for some to 
wash in and not be far out of the way, as he 
was somewhat dirty. 

“Well, Zeek, is that all you came up to ask 
about?” went on Uncle Tod, who seemed to 
enjoy the fellow’s discomfiture—and bashful 
and discomfited Zeek Took certainly was. 

“Ya-as—that’s all, I reckon,” and Zeek’s 
shifty eyes darted here and there about the 
camp, as if spying. 

“Who sent you?” suddenly asked Uncle 
Tod. 

“Eh!” 

Zeek clearly was taken by surprise. 

“Who sent you?” repeated Mr. Belmont. 

“Why—er—now’—nobody sent me! I come 
myself. ’ ’ 

“Oh, you did? What for?” 

“Wa’al,” he slowly drawled as if seeking an 
excuse, “I—er—now—I thought maybe if th’ 





140 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


river wa ’n’t runnin ’ you ’d hire me t ’ cart water 
so’s you could wash out th’ dirt.” 

4 ‘Oh, you wanted to cart water so we could 
do our mining, Zeek? Well, that was very 
kind of you,” went on Uncle Tod, “but what 
little washing my partner did before the river 
became lost, didn’t pan out enough metal to 
make it pay, and I don’t believe we could af¬ 
ford to give you any wages.” 

“Oh, I’d be willin’ t’ work for my grub, 
Uncle Tod.” Everyone in that region seemed 
to have adopted this friendly name. 

Mr. Belmont shook his head and smiled in 
a somewhat sarcastic manner. 

“I reckon not, Zeek,” he answered. “We’ve 
got some new prospectors now,” Uncle Tod 
went on. “There’s one,” and he indicated 
Ruddy. “It’ll be about all we can feed in a 
dry camp. But if you’re hungry now, I 
reckon we can hand you out a snack.” 

“Wa’al,” drawled Zeek, “it’s been a good 
while since breakfast!” 

“Hum!” mused Uncle Tod. “Well, sit over 
there, Zeek,” indicating a bench, “and Sam’ll 
bring you out some grub. ’ ’ 

Then as Rick, Chot and Mr. Campbell en- 


INTO THE CAVERN 


141 


tered the cabin, Uncle Tod said, in a low voice: 

“Zeek isn’t just the kind you want to sit 
down to the table with—even out in this free 
and easy place. He goes at his food as if it 
might come to life and get away from him. 
He’ll be more at home out there.” 

Uncle Tod’s camp cabin was a more comfort¬ 
able place than at first appeared. The food 
was excellent, though not of the finest sort, but 
it was well cooked, and whatever else Sam 
Rockford might be—gloomy and inclined to 
look on the dark side of everything—he cer¬ 
tainly knew how to serve a meal. The boys 
and Mr. Campbell testified to this, and Ruddy 
would have said the same had he been able to 
speak. 

Zeek was fed out in the open, and soon de¬ 
parted, murmuring his thanks. And then, as 
the others finished their meal, and pushed 
back their rough stools that served for chairs, 
Mr. Campbell asked: 

“ Anything special about Took coming here, 
Mr. Belmont?” 

“I don’t know whether there was or not,” 
was Uncle Tod’s answer. “First I thought 
he was only one more of the queer characters 




142 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


to be met with out west. Then, when he be¬ 
gan coming around more frequently—but al¬ 
ways sneaking his way in—I became a bit sus¬ 
picious. * ’ 

“Is he altogether right in his mind?” asked 
Mr. Campbell. 

“I don’t believe he is, and that’s why I 
think he’s being used by some one with more 
brains than he has.” 

“Some one trying to get your mine away 
from you, Uncle Tod!” asked Rick. 

“Well, I don’t know’s any one is trying to 
do that,” was the answer. “Still you never 
know when you’re playing safe in this mining 
game. The best way, I find, is to suspect 
everybody until you find out they’re square, 
and then it isn’t always safe. As for Zeek 
Took, I don’t want him hanging around; that’s 
all, though I don’t want to be mean to him, espe¬ 
cially if he’s hungry. How he lives I don’t 
know, but I won’t see even a dog go hungry. 
Will I, Ruddy?” and Rick’s setter looked up 
into the miner’s face and gratefully wagged 
the plumed tail. 

“I don’t know much about mining,” said 
Mr. Campbell, as he and the other two men 


INTO THE CAVERN 


143 


were smoking* their pipes, while Rick and Chot 
listened to the talk, “but how were things 
here before you lost the river, or the river 
lost itself? And I’d like to know a little about 
the stream, also.” 

“Well, there isn’t a great deal to tell,” said 
Uncle Tod reflectively. “Sam, here, bought 
this claim first and then let me in on it. It 
looked good to him—in fact it looked good to 
me—that was when the river was running out 
of the cave. We call it a river though it isn’t 
much more than a half-grown brook back in 
your country, Mr. Campbell where you have 
lots of water. But, such as it was, it served to 
wash out the dirt we dug. 

“You know there are many ways to mine 
for gold, silver and copper,” he went on, for 
the especial benefit of the boys. “In some 
parts of the mountains you dig out the ore dry, 
and you may get fairly big chunks of gold. Or 
the ore may be filled with little specks of metal 
that can be got at only when the rock is crushed. 
This crushed rock and dust is treated 
in different ways. It may be smelted or mixed 
with water and acids or other chemicals. 
I don’t know much about those methods. 



144 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


4 i Then there is a simpler form of mining, 
the water method. You get a lot of dirt, gravel 
or what-not, and in it will be a lot of fine 
gold dust—maybe silver dust or copper—or 
whatever you’re after. We get both gold and 
copper here—or, rather, we did. 

“The simplest method of getting gold out of 
* the dirt it’s mixed with is to ‘pan’ it. That is, 
take half a panful of the gold-bearing gravel 
and put water in the pan. By moving the pan 
with a circular motion you can wash away, 
over one edge that you tilt down, most of the 
water and gravel and dirt. The gold, being 
heavier than the dirt, goes to the bottom of the 
pan and lodges there. l r ou may get a cou¬ 
ple of dollar’s worth from each pan of dirt you 
wash, or you may get a cent’s worth—it de¬ 
pends on the dirt.” 

“It’s a sort of chance,” suggested Chot. 

“That’s is—just a chance,” agreed Uncle 
Tod. “If you want to work the washing-out 
method on a larger scale, you build a flume 
box, or a rocker. Both work on the same 
principle. A flume box is a long, narrow box 
of boards with cross cleats all along the bot¬ 
tom. Y ou wash the sand and gravel down this 



INTO THE CAVERN 


145 


flume with water and the gold, being heaviest, 
goes to the bottom and lodges against the cross 
cleats where you take it out later on—after a 
da r of washing. 

4 A rocker is a flume box on a small scale, 
only instead of the water rushing down an 
incline you shake, or rock a box with cross 
pieces in it, tilting it on a slant while you do 
it, and the gold—if there is any—lodges on 
cross cleats also. A rocker box is like a pan, 
only better.” 

4 ‘Is that what you mean when you say ‘pan 
out’?” asked Rick, 

“That’s it,” assented Uncle Tod. “Some 
dirt doesn’t pan out worth a cent after all your 
work. Well, here, we used the flume method,” 
he resumed, “that is we did while Sam had 
water. But all of a sudden Lost River proved 
true to its name and we had to stop work. The 
gold, what there is—and the copper—is so fine 
that we can’t get it out without a deal of wash¬ 
ing. As a matter of fact I don’t believe it’s 
over going to pay to go after copper this way 
—not at the price copper brings now—since 
the war is over. But we might make gold 
mining pay if we could get water.” 


146 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


44 Where’s the water of Lost River gone?” 
asked Mr. Campbell. 

44 That’s what we’d like to know,” said Un¬ 
cle Tod with a smile. 44 Where is it!” 

4 4 Have you looked in the cave to find out 
whether it hasn’t dropped through a hole in 
the bottom, and is flowing along somewhere 
beyond you—farther down the valley?” asked 
Mr. Campbell. 

44 We tried it—yes,” assented Uncle Tod. 

44 But it isn’t altogether healthy—going in 
that cave, ’ ’ remarked Sam, with a look over his 
shoulder. 44 I won’t go in again. If I did I 
wouldn’t come out alive!” 

44 What’s there?” cried Rick and Chot ea¬ 
gerly. 

44 That’s what we don’t know,” answered 
Uncle Tod. 4 4 Maybe you can find out—now 
you’re here—you and Ruddy.” 

44 But you must have some idea of it,” in¬ 
sisted Mr. Campbell. 44 What is in the cave?” 

44 Ghosts!” came the unexpected answer of 
Sam Rockford. 44 Ghosts!” 

44 Nonsense!” declared Uncle Tod with a 
laugh. 44 I admit we did hear some spooky 
noises in there, when Sam and I tried to ex- 


INTO THE CAVERN 


147 


plore after the water stopped, but it wasn’t 
them I feared.” 

“What was it?” asked Rick. 

“The danger of getting lost and toppling 
down some hole into unknown blackness, Rick. 
It’s awful dark in there. I guess it must be a 
tunnel right under the mountain where the 
river used to come out. Maybe now it’s dipped 
into some hole or new channel. Anyhow it’s 
Lost River in earnest. ’’ 

“This country was once torn by volcanic ac¬ 
tion,” was the opinion of Mr. Campbell as he 
looked around on the rugged peaks and the low 
valleys. “There may be all sorts of under¬ 
ground and lost water courses here, and your 
river was probably one of them.” 

“Very likely,” agreed Uncle Tod. “Well, I 
only wish it would find itself again. Without 
it we can’t do any mining.” 

“I’d like to stay and help you,” said Mr. 
Campbell, “but I must get on to San Fran¬ 
cisco.” 

4 4 Oh, yes, ’ ’ agreed Uncle Tod. 4 4 It was very 
good of you to bring Rick and his chum—not 
forgetting Ruddy. Perhaps among us aU now, 
we’ll be able to solve the mystery.” 


148 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

Mr. Campbell departed in his auto next morn¬ 
ing, after an uneventful night, though Rick and 
Chot rather looked for some excitement—per¬ 
haps a return visit of Zeek Took after dark. 
But nothing like that happened. 

4 4 Well, boys, what do you say to some explo¬ 
rations to-day?” asked Uncle Tod, when break¬ 
fast was a thing of the past. 

44 Explorations in the cave of Lost River?’’ 
asked Rick. 

44 That’s where I mean. Are you game for 
it?” 

44 Sure!” answered both boys, and Rick 
added: 44 Aren’t we, Ruddy?” 

The dog leaped about, barking joyfully, for 
he liked action of any sort. 

44 You going in that spooky place again?” 
asked Sam, as Uncle Tod made preparations for 
entering the cavern. 

4 4 Of course. Don’t you want to come ? We ’ve 
got to find water somehow, Sam. ’ ’ 

4 4 Not me!” he exclaimed emphatically. 

4 4 When I want ghosts I like ’em in the open. 
And as far as getting back Lost River goes— 
it’ll never happen.” 

44 Hum,” mused Uncle Tod, 44 gloomy as ever! 




/* 


INTO THE CAVERN 149 

If I didn’t know yon better, Sam, I’d think you 
meant that.” 

“I do!” 

“No yon don’t! Come on, boys. Let’s see 
what we can find.” 

Equipped with lanterns and a long rope the 
three—no, four, for Ruddy went along—en¬ 
tered the mouth of the gloomy cavern. 

What would they find? 


\ 




CHAPTER XV 


UNCLE TOD GIVES UP 

R ICK and Chot, to say nothing of Ruddy, 
were in their element—just where they 
most delighted to be—engaged in something 
venturesome and penetrating into the unknown. 
For the tunnel or cavern, through which Lost 
River had formerly flowed, was certainly un¬ 
known to the boys. 

“And I don’t know much more about it than 
you do,” confessed Uncle Tod. “I wouldn’t 
risk taking you lads in, under those circum¬ 
stances, except that we have Ruddy with us. I 
depend a good deal on your dog, Rick.” 

“You mean to drive away any mountain lions 
if any come at us?” asked Chot as they slowly 
made their way farther into the dark cavern. 

“Shucks! I don’t believe there are any 
mountains lions around here!” scoffed the 
miner. “Nothing worse than skunks, and 
they’ll give us plenty of warning. No, it isn’t 
animals I’m afraid of.” 


150 



UNCLE TOD GIVES UP 


151 


“What then!” asked Rick, curiously. 

“Well, I don’t exactly know. There’s some 
sort of danger in here, but what it is nobody 
seems able to tell. Sam says it’s ghosts, but 
shucks! I never saw a ghost yet that was 
worth a mess of beans! But, for all that, other 
miners around here say they wouldn’t venture 
into this tunnel.” 

“Maybe they’re afraid of the water sud¬ 
denly coming back,” suggested Chot. 

“Well, there may be something in that,” 
agreed Uncle Tod. “But if Lost River starts 
to come back we can hear it and get out of 
the way. Besides, the river never covered 
more than a small part of the bottom of the 
tunnel—that is when it was running at its best. 
There was room to walk on either side of it, 
and it wasn’t deep in the middle. So even 
if the water should come back it wouldn’t harm 
us.” 

“Unless,” said Rick, “we happened to be in 
a narrow part of the tunnel where the river 
tilled it completely.” 

“Well, yes,” admitted Uncle Tod, “in that 
case it might be dangerous. But we won’t en¬ 
ter any narrow part unless we see it’s safe. 


152 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

No, it isn’t the water I’m worried about. It’s 
some unknown sort of danger that Sam fears, 
and that other miners around here fear.” 

“Have other miners spoken of it!” asked 
Chot. 

“Yes, several of ’em since the water stopped. 
When my mine went dry, and there wasn’t any 
more chance of working it, I said I was going 
in this tunnel and see what the trouble was. 
I was advised against it by several. They said 
there was a story that, years ago, the water 
stopped running. Some Indians went in to see 
why and—well, they never came out again.” 
Uncle Tod shook his head dubiously. 

“Did the water start flowing once morel” 
Rick wanted to know. 

“Yes, it must have, for it’s been running fo 1 * 
years. No one around here has ever seen it 
dry—it’s just a rumor that it was.” 

“I don’t see what there is to be afraid of,” 
remarked Chot. ‘If it isn’t animals, and the 
water itself doesn’t nearly fill the tunnel, what 
can it be I” 

“I wish I knew,” sighed Uncle Tod. “It’s 
like looking for something you don’t know 
about and in the dark at that—for these lan- 


UNCLE TOD GIVES UP 


153 


terns don’t give much light. But, as I said, I 
wouldn’t have brought you boys out here ex¬ 
cept I believed you might happen to think of 
some things Sam and I couldn’t. You boys 
are smart, and so is Buddy. I trust a dog 
where I wouldn’t a man, in sensing danger.” 

‘ 4 That’s right!” cried Chot. “ ’Member the 
broken bridge, Bick f ’ ’ 

“I should say I did,” and when they repeated 
this story in detail to Uncle Tod—for they had 
barely mentioned it before—the old miner ex¬ 
claimed : 

“ There! What’d I tell you? Buddy is what 
we got to depend on. He’ll give us warning of 
danger, and I might as well say that what I fear 
worst is getting lost in here or tumbling down 
some deep hole. So mind your steps, boys! 
We have ropes to help us in case we take a 
tumble, but watch out just the same.” 

Thus warned the boys stepped cautiously 
enough, and Buddy, too, seemed filled with a 
wholesome respect for the place, as he did not 
rush about blindly, nosing here and there as 
he did out in the open. He kept close to his 
friends, going only a little way ahead, and not 
out of range of the glimmer of the lanterns. 



154 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


And then, looking back, he would wait for the 
party to come up to him. 

‘ 1 Ruddy knows his business,” said Uncle 
Tod. “I thought of him first shot when I saw 
what had occurred here, and that’s why \ 
wanted you to bring him, Rick. Two boys and 
a dog are equal to any mystery that ever hap¬ 
pened.” 

They were now fairly within the long, wind¬ 
ing cavern or tunnel that led under the moun¬ 
tain and served as a course for Lost River 
when that stream condescended to be found. 
Just now no one knew where the river had hid¬ 
den itself, though it was reasonable to suppose 
that it followed the general law of water and 
ran down hill. In that case it must either be 
flowing under the feet of the explorers, perhaps 
a mile or more below them, or it was off to 
their left or right, more or less underground. 

There are underground rivers in many parts 
of the world, and they are always more or less 
of a mystery. I, myself, have explored some 
of them, and have been puzzled, as nearly every¬ 
one has, over the strange behavior of the 
streams. They appear on top of the earth, 
and then suddenly dip down into a gorge that 


UNCLE TOD GIVES UP 155 

they have worn away, often through solid rock. 
Then they disappear beneath the surface of the 
earth, to appear miles farther on, having gone 
through passages never seen by mortal eyes. 

Often it cannot be said whether the reappear¬ 
ing river is the same one you start to trace, or 
another that has taken its place underground. 
It is all guess work, and as such is very fasci¬ 
nating. 

So you can easily see that Rick and Chot 
were delighted with this opportunity of being 
with Uncle Tod, and the danger of it did not 
at all worry or impress them. 

4 ‘We’ll find Lost River!” declared Rick. 

“Sure we will!” agreed Chot. 

Ruddy, of course, said nothing, but from the 
manner in which he nosed about it might be 
assumed that he would do his share of the ex¬ 
ploration work and warn of any danger he 
sensed. 

Flashing their lights to and fro—for each car¬ 
ried a lantern—the travelers in the tunnel 
looked about them. Under the suggestion of 
Uncle Tod the boys were searching for some 
side passage, or downward dip into which Lost 
River might have slipped, thus keeping away 


156 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

from the mine where its waters were much 
needed. 

Suddenly, as Chot stepped a little ahead of 
his two friends, and off to the right, the boy 
gave a cry of astonishment, mingled with fear 
and then came the thud of a fall. 

“Chot’s gone!” exclaimed Uncle Tod, hurry¬ 
ing to the place where the lad was last seen. 

Ruddy uttered a bark of warning it seemed 
as he dashed up hlong side of the miner, and 
only just in time, for Uncle Tod stopped short 
on the edge of a deep and black hole. Rick, 
at his uncle’s side, gave a gasp of fear and 
swung his lantern over the chasm. 

“Are you there, Chot?” he cried desperately. 

To the great relief of the two, back came the 
boy’s voice in answer: 

“Sure I’m here! It wasn’t much of a tum¬ 
ble, but my lantern went out. Didn’t break, 
though, I guess.” 

“Are you hurt?” asked Uncle Tod. 

4 ‘ Nope! ’ ’ cheerfully answered Chot. ‘ ‘ There’s 
a lot of old leaves and stuff down here and I 
fell on that. If you lower the rope I can get 
up all right.” 


UNCLE TOD GIVES UP 


157 


“It's good we brought the rope/’ said Rick, 
as his uncle uncoiled it. 

44 Yes, I figured on something like this,” said 
the miner. 

It was not difficult to pull Chot up, for the 
hole into which he had fallen was not deep. 
The lad was bruised and shaken up, but not 
otherwise harmed. 

“We have got to be more careful,” declared 
Uncle Tod. 

But, with all their care the same accident hap¬ 
pened again, a little farther on, only it was Rick 
who fell in. And he fell harder and deeper 
than Chot, with the result that he received a 
badly bruised left arm which gave him great 
pain. 

“Want to go back!” asked Uncle Tod. 

“No, sir!” exclaimed Rick, gritting his teeth 
to keep back a groan of anguish. 

So they went on. But when Uncle Tod him¬ 
self slipped over a small ledge, turning on his 
ankle with force enough to make him limp, and 
when Chot just saved himself from plunging 
into another hole, Uncle Tod said: 

“Pm through! I’m going to give up!” 


158 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


‘ ‘ What ? ’’ cried Rick. ‘‘ Why, we haven’t ex¬ 
plored half the tunnel yet!’ * 

“Yes we have,” was the answer. “ There’s 
the end now! It is shorter than I thought, and 
there isn’t a sign of water. I’m through I tell 
you. Might as well give up the mine.” 

‘ ‘ What do you mean—the end of the tunnel ? ’ ’ 
asked Rick. 

In answer his uncle pointed to the right and 
the boys could see daylight glimmering where, 
before, only invisible blackness had been ahead 
of them. 

What did it mean? 


CHAPTER XVI 


RICK DRAWS SOMETHING 

64 \ / 7"HJS, boys,” went on Uncle Tod, “it 
X looks as though we had played the game 
out. There’s the end of the tunnel—it’s much 
shorter than I ever thought, for Sam and I 
never came this far before—and we haven’t 
seen a drop of water the whole length.” 

They had walked to where daylight gleamed 
and found that they could pass out of the tun¬ 
nel into the open. They emerged at the side of 
a hill, very much the same sort of hill that was 
behind the cabin at the mine camp. Below them 
lay the valley, winding off to the east and west 
—a deserted desolate valley, dotted here and 
there, perhaps, with the camps of hopeful min¬ 
ers, but which camps were too small to be seen 
amid the trees and bushes. 

“The river was here once/’ said Uncle Tod, 
“but it’s gone now.” 

“How can you tell it was here?” asked Chot. 

159 



160 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“By the way the stones are worn,” was the 
answer. “See how smooth and rounded they 
are, where water has been flowing over them 
for years and years. But there is no water 
now, worse luck!” 

The boys easily recognized the dry bed of 
some former stream—Lost River beyond all 
doubt. But where was Lost River now? That 
is what they wanted to know. 

As Uncle Tod had said, the tunnel was much 
shorter than he had supposed. They had come 
not more than three miles under the mountain 
—a long enough passage if it had been dug by 
the hand of man for a railroad, as it was all 
through solid rock—but the rushing water 
which had, seemingly, bored the passage, took 
no note of time. It had centuries at its dis¬ 
posal, and had worn its way slowly. 

Entering the tunnel at the camp, the explor¬ 
ers had wound their way through it, with the 
comparatively unimportant accidents I have de¬ 
scribed, and had emerged through a hole in 
the side of the mountain. All about them were 
water-worn stones, and they could trace where 
the stream had flowed downward from where 
they stood, but in the opposite direction from 


RICK DRAWS SOMETHING 


161 


that in which they had been traveling. In 
other words they had walked against the direc¬ 
tion of the stream. 

“And that’s the queer part of it,” said Un¬ 
cle Tod. “All along, boys, we’ve been going 
up grade through the tunnel, and that means 
the water of Lost River flowed down, just as it 
did before my mine went dry. Now we get 
here and at this point the course of the stream 
shows that the water must have flowed the 
other way, in the same direction we have been 
going.” 

“You mean this hole here, where we just 
came out, is a sort of diving place,” suggested 
Rick. 

“That’s it—a miniature watershed. Back of 
us, in the tunnel where we just came from, the 
water flowed east. Here it began and flowed 
west—that is when there was any water. 

“So I can’t see,” went on Uncle Tod, “any 
use in keeping on. Lost River was here, but 
it’s gone. When it will come back—no one 
knows. Not much use waiting for it, I reckon. 
I don’t see why Sam and I didn’t find this out 
before, but he got frightened by a lot of queer 
noises in the tunnel, and wouldn’t keep on. I 


162 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


didn’t dare risk going alone, and we never got 
as far as here. 

“But this is the end—I’m going to give up 
now! ’ ’ 

“ It’s too bad, ’ ’ said Rick, nursing his bruised 
arm tenderly. ‘ 1 I thought we’d find something. 
What are you going to do now, Uncle Tod!” 

“Oh, give up and go back east, I reckon. 
I’ve got other mines in different parts of the 
country, but I wanted this to pan out well for 
Sam’s sake. It’s the only one he has an in¬ 
terest in. But it wasn’t to be, I guess. I’m 
sorry I brought you boys out on such a wild- 
goose chase!” 

“Oh, we don’t mind,” Rick hastened to say. 

“I guess not!” cried Chot. “We’ve had 
packs of fun!” 

“And we’ll have more,” suggested Rick. 
“We don’t have to go back right away; do 
we!” 

“No, I reckon not,” his uncle said. “Might 
as well stay and have a little vacation while 
you’re here. And maybe Sam and I will pros¬ 
pect around a bit. Might happen to hit on 
some nuggets or pockets that would pay us for 


RICK DRAWS SOMETHING 163 

« 

our grub, anyhow. We *11 stay a while. But 
now I’m going to head back for camp.” 

“Through the tunnel?” asked Rick. 

“No, we can go back along this side valley 
trail. Looks like a fairly good one though I 
haven’t traveled it myself. Well, it’s too bad, 
but I’ve got to give up!” 

With a sigh, Uncle Tod led the way from this 
second opening of the mysterious tunnel, back 
toward his camp. And as Rick followed him 
there came into the lad’s mind an idea that, 
eventually, was responsible for the solution of 
the mystery of Lost River; all of which will 
be related in due time. 

It was nearly night when the travelers, foot¬ 
sore and weary, with aching bones, reached the 
mine camp. Ruddy, panting and tired, 
stretched out in his accustomed place and 
promptly went to sleep. 

“Well?” asked Sam Rockford inquiringly. 
“What did you find?” 

“Nothing,” answered Uncle Tod. 

“I thought you would,” was the gloomy 
one’s comment. “Well, what you goin’ to do 
now, Tod?” 


164 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Nothing, I reckon. I’ll let the boys have a 
good time, and then I’ll go back east with ’em. 
This mine isn’t worth the powder to blow it 
up—without water to wash out the pay stuff.” 

“I reckon not,” assented Sam. 4 ‘But w r hat 
did you hear in the tunnel, Tod; any strange 
ghost voices?” 

“Nonsense! Of course not! But we came 
to the farther end which you and I never 
reached. The tunnel just peters out at a place 
where Lost River, apparently, ran both ways. 
But just now it isn’t running either way. 
It’s gone!” 

“Doesn’t take a weather prophet to see 
that,” grunted Sam. “Well, you’ve got a few 
other claims around here. Might as well work 
them while the boys are having a vacation.” 

“I reckon so,” agreed Uncle Tod, and his 
voice was almost as gloomy as that which Sam 
so often used. 

As for Rick and Chot they were too tired then 
to think much about it—all they wanted was 
“grub,” and Sam prepared an unusually good 
supper. As least so it tasted to Rick, Chot and 
Ruddy. 

It was two or three days after the disappoint- 




Rick started drawing with pencil and paper 












KICK DRAWS SOMETHING 


165 


ing exploration of the tunnel, during which 
time the boys, their sore spots healed, romped 
with Ruddy about the surrounding country, 
meeting miners and other characters who told 
strange tales of Lost River. Some of the more 
ignorant held that the stream, and the tunnel 
through which it formerly flowed, were en¬ 
chanted, or under the spell of some evil spirit. 
But of course Rick and Chot laughed at this. 

The two boys and their dog (for Chot claimed 
a loving interest in Ruddy) paid several more 
visits to the second opening of the tunnel— 
the place where Uncle Tod had been so disap¬ 
pointed—and it was after one of these visits, 
sitting by themselves in the mine cabin as they 
were (for Uncle Tod and Sam had gone out) it 
was at this time that Rick started drawing 
something with pencil and paper. 

“What you doing?” asked Chot. “Going to 
write a story of Lost River ?” 

“Not much, though after we find it maybe I 
will,” Rick answered with a laugh. 

‘ 4 What do you mean—do you think you ’re go¬ 
ing to find it?” 

“I might,” was the cool answer. “Look 
here, Chot, what do you think of that?” and 


166 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


Rick passed to his chum a sketch, or drawing, 
on which certain words were written. Chot 
studied for a few moments, and then his eyes 
brightened as he cried: 

44 Golly! Maybe that’s the way it really hap¬ 
pened, Rick!” 

44 It’s worth trying, anyhow; don’t you 
think?” 

4 4 1 sure do! Cracky! I didn’t know you 
were such a sketch artist. This is a regular 
pirate’s treasure map.” 

44 It may turn out that way,” chuckled Rick. 
44 I’ve been thinking about this ever since Uncle 
Tod gave up, and it came into my head that this 
may solve the mystery.” 




CHAPTER XVII 


ON THEIE OWN 

C HOT remained silent for several seconds, 
looking at the rough plan which Rick had 
sketched out. He turned it first to one side 
and then the other, even looking at it upside 
down. 

‘‘Why don’t you stand on your head?” asked 
Rick with a chuckling laugh. He was happy 
because Chot appeared to agree with his theory, 
or idea, which seemed wild enough at first. 

“I’m trying to look at it in all sort of ways 
before we tackle it,” Chot said. 

“Will you try it with me!” eagerly asked 
Rick. 

‘ ‘ I sure will ! 19 came the quick answer. ‘ ‘ But 
aren’t you going to let your Uncle Tod in on 
it?” 

Rick slowly shook his head. 

“Not just yet,” he answered. “I want to go 

back to the second tunnel before I say anything, 

167 


168 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

and look around, now that I have drawn out 
this plan. I just wanted to see what you 
thought of it.” 

‘‘ All right,’ 9 agreed Chot. ‘ * Maybe it will be 
best to say nothing until we’re a little more 
sure. But it looks all right to me,” he added 
as again he glanced at the drawing before hand¬ 
ing it back to Rick. “How did you come to 
think of it!” he asked. 

“Well, I got thinking how queer it was that 
all those rocks should be piled up there to the 
left of the place where we came out of the 
other end of the tunnel,” answered Rick. “It 
didn’t seem right they should be there natu¬ 
rally, and when I looked at them yesterday I 
saw they had been blasted out.” 

“Blasted out!” cried Chot in amazement. 

“Yes, some explosive has been used there,” 
declared Rick, positively. 

“Then somebody must have done it!” ex¬ 
claimed his chum. 

“Sure they did.” 

“On purpose!” 

“Why else!” 

“You mean they blasted away a rocky wall 
and made Lost River lose itself again, Rick!” 


ON THEIR OWN 


169 


“Something like that, yes. But I can’t tell 
any more about it until we go take a look. 
We’ll go there with this map—maybe I haven’t 
got it just right, ’cause I made it from mem¬ 
ory. But we’ll go take another look, and I 
can fix any mistakes I made. Then, if it seems 
to be like what I think, we’ll tackle it our¬ 
selves.” 

“On our own, you mean?” asked Chot. 

“Sure! Why not? If we tell Uncle Tod he 
may only laugh and say we can’t do it. ’ ’ 

“And if we tell Sam he’ll only look over his 
shoulder and say a ghost will get us,” chuckled 
Chot. “Yes, I guess we’d better go on our 
own. But we’ll take Ruddy, of course?” he 
questioned. 

4 ‘ Oh, sure! ’ ’ exclaimed Rick. 

The two boys bent over the drawing Rick had 
made. It appeared as shown on next page. 

“Can you understand it?” asked Rick. 

‘ 1 Sure—most of it, ’ ’ answered Chot. 4 6 Here’s 
our camp, and the flume where they used to 
wash out the pay dirt when they had water.” 

“Lost River came from the tunnel, as I have 
drawn it, ’ ’ went on Rick, 1 i and the dotted lines 
show where it used to run in the tunnel. I’ve 



170 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


left off the top of the tunnel so you could see 
what I mean.” 



K'vcK dAlToa/’s M AF> 

“I see,” said Chot. 

“Then,” continued Rick, pointing with his 


pencil, “we come to the opening of the second 









ON THEIR OWN 


171 


tunnel—I don't exactly mean a second tun¬ 
nel—’’ 

4 ‘You mean the second opening of the tun¬ 
nel, 'cause there’s only one tunnel," suggested 
Chot. 

“That’s it—yes," assented Rick. “And at 
this second opening is where there was a divi¬ 
sion—the water seemed to flow down into Green 
Valley." 

“I see," said Chot. 

“And here," went on Rick, “where I've 
marked it, is a pile of rocks. Now I claim these 
rocks were blasted out of the side of the hill 
and piled there, either by the blast or after¬ 
ward. And, what’s more, Chot, I think those 
rocks hide another opening into the tunnel. 
You know, it branches off and goes under the 
hill again." 

“Like the letter Y?’’ asked Chot. 

“That’s it. And I think Lost River came 
out of the left hand branch of the Y and flowed 
down inside our tunnel to a point near our 
camp. Then it came out into the open where 
Uncle Tod and Sam used it for the flume. Also, 
at the Y, some of the water flowed down into 
the valley at the place Uncle Tod calls a water- 


172 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

shed, but not as much as went into our tun¬ 
nel.* ’ 

“I see,” said Chot. ‘‘But what more is 
there to it!** 

“That’s what we’ve got to find out,” said 
Rick. “If I’m right we may find Lost River 
somewhere in back of that pile of stones.” 

“But if it’s there, whv doesn’t it run out 
through the stones?” asked Chot. “They’re 
piled up so loose they wouldn’t hold back any 
water like a dam would.” 

“I know it,” agreed Rick. “And what I 
think is that the river has been turned out of 
its course somewhere back in the other tunnel 
that’s maybe behind the pile of rocks.” 

“You mean Lost River is lost in another tun¬ 
nel?” asked his chum. 

‘ ‘ That’s what I think, and it’s up to you and 
me to find it.” 

“I’m with you! ’ ’ cried Chot, eagerly. ‘ ‘ It ’ll 
be fun to be on our own, with Ruddy to help. 
But maybe Uncle Tod won’t let us,” he said, 
dubiously. 

“Oh, I guess he will,” spoke Rick hopefully. 
“We’ve been off by ourselves a lot lately—we 


ON THEIR OWN 


173 


could go and stay all day—take some grub with 
us.” 

“But maybe it would take longer than a 
day.” 

“That’s nothing. We could stay all night. 
We’ve been camping before, when we went on 
Scout hikes.” 

“Sure we have, Rick.” 

“All right, then if we have to stay all night 
we will, but we’ll try to do it in one day.” 

“First we got to get those stones out of the 
way and see if there is another tunnel open¬ 
ing,” suggested Chot. 

“That’s right,” assented his chum. “We’ll 
do that to-morrow, and then, if we find what 
we’re looking for, we’ll start next day.” 

Uncle Tod and his partner were so busy seek¬ 
ing another mine location, where they would not 
have to depend on water, that they paid little 
attention to the boys or dog. Rick, Chot and 
Ruddy could wander off where they pleased. 
So it was an easy matter to proceed to the 
second opening of the tunnel—the place where 
they had come out before. 

They went by the outside trail, as it was 


174 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


quicker, and there was nothing to be gained by 
again proceeding through the tunnel. And 
there, as they looked at the pile of rocks, it was 
made certain to both boys—in the light of 
Rick’s map—that what Rick had said might 
very likely be true. 

Rebind those stones might easily be another 
tunnel, and in that tunnel—well, they hoped to 
find Lost River, or a trace of it. 

‘ 4 It’s going to be a lot of work—moving all 
those stones,” announced Chot with a sigh as 
they gazed at the tumbled mass of broken and 
jagged rocks. 

44 Oh, not so much,” retorted Rick, more 
cheerfully. “We can move one at a time, and 
all we need to do is to make an opening so we 
can get through. If we can bring the river 
back, the water will soon make a channel for it¬ 
self. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ Bring Lost River back f ’ ’ cried Chot. 4 4 How 
you going to do it?” 

“That’s what we’ve got to find out,” an¬ 
swered his chum. “Anyhow we’re on our own, 
now, and maybe we’ll surprise Uncle Tod.” 

Then they fell to work upon the rocks, toss¬ 
ing the smaller ones aside, and, with long tree 


ON THEIR. OWN 


175 


branches for levers, rolling the larger boulders 
down the side of the mountain. 

And, as they labored, they wondered what 
mystery lay behind the pile of rocks. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


INTO THE DARK 

iOVTOT very much fun—lhis, ,, commented 
-Ll Rick, as he and Chot tossed rock after 
rock aside. “like prisoners working on a 
stone pile; isn’t it?” 

“Oh, I don’t know,” slowly answered Chot, 
as he straightened up to ease his aching back. 
“We don’t have to do it if we don’t want to, 
Rick.” 

“Yes, that’s so,” agreed the other lad. 
4 4 Here, Ruddy, what are you trying to do ? ” he 
asked, for the setter was acting in a peculiar 
manner standing at attention in front of a 
hole that ran under the roots of a gnarled tree. 
Ruddy was growling in a low voice and he 
showed every indication of anger, not unmixed 
with alarm. 

44 Let’s go over and see what he’s got,” sug¬ 
gested Chot. 

44 I only hope it isn’t a skunk,” murmured 

178 



INTO THE DARK 


177 


Rick. “He fooled me that way once and— 
whew—Pve never forgotten it! Oh, boy!” 

“I don’t smell anything,” remarked Chot, 
hopefully. 

“No, not yet,” assented Rick with a laugh. 
“And when you do smell it—then it’s too late. 
But I reckon it isn’t a skunk. If it was he’d 
have been into action long before this. Mr. 
Skunk doesn’t stand much monkeying. He’ll 
give you two fair warnings before he shoots 
and then, if you’re foolish enough not to mind 
them he unlimbers his heavy artillery. Here, 
Ruddy, keep back until I can see what it is 
under there!” ordered Rick. 

The dog looked toward the boys as they left 
the stone pile, growled again and then obe¬ 
diently moved away from the hole into which 
he had, evidently, seen some animal retreat, or 
perhaps he had chased it there himself, since 
Rick and Chot had not paid much attention to 
him. 

The two boys cautiously approached the hole 
under the roots of the old, gnarled tree which 
grew out of the side of the hill not far from 
the pile of rocks. As he drew near Rick began 
sniffing the air cautiously, for, as he said, he 


178 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


had had one experience with a skunk that 
Ruddy stirred up, and did not want another. 

1 ‘ There’s a wild animal smell, but I don’t be¬ 
lieve it comes from a skunk,’’ was Rick’s opin¬ 
ion as he drew near the hole. “Can you reach 
me a stick, Chot?” 

“Here,” answered his chum, passing over a 
long slender tree branch. Rick poked it down 
in the hole, turned it around and jabbed it in 
as far as it would go. Nothing came out, not 
even a sound. 

“Guess it’s a false alarm,” suggested Chot. 

“Maybe so. Yet Ruddy isn’t the kind of a 
dog to bark up the wrong tree or down the 
wrong hole. Maybe the stick isn’t long 
enough. ’ ’ 

The lads looked around until they found a 
larger pole, Ruddy, meanwhile, watching them 
curiously and interestedly. But though Rick 
and Chot took turns poking sticks down the 
hole, turning them this way and that, and jab¬ 
bing them in, not a sound—not a growl or 
snarl—came out from among the twisted roots. 

Ruddy stood near his two friends, made little 
darts forward at the hole at every motion on 
the part of the boys, and whimpered in eager 


INTO THE DARK 


179 


anticipation, growling now and then and, anon, 
permitting himself the challenge of a bark. 
But it was all to no purpose. 

“I guess there's nothing here," said Chot at 
last. “We’d better get back to our stone pile.” 

“There has been something here,” said Rick. 
4 4 1 can smell that wild animal smell. ’ ’ 

44 Like in a circus tent,” suggested Chot. 

44 That’s it—sure! But whatever it was has 
gone out I reckon.” 

44 Animals have back doors to their dens; 
don’t they!” asked Chot. 

“I reckon they do—this one must have had, 
anyhow. ’ ’ 

44 What do you think it was, Rick!” 

44 Oh, a fox, maybe.” 

44 Couldn’t it be a bob cat!” 

44 You mean a lynx!” 

44 Yep.” 

44 Sure, it could . Maybe it was. Well, we’ll 
let it go this time, seeing it got away!” laughed 
Rick. 4 4 Come on, Ruddy, chase yourself 
around and get up an appetite for dinner,” and 
he threw a stick down the side of the hill, the 
boys laughing at the dog’s eagerness to re¬ 
trieve it. 


180 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Do you mind doing this, Chot? ” asked Rick, 
when they were again busy on the stone pile, 
tossing and prying aside the rocks. 

“Not a bit—why?” 

“Well, it isn’t much fun to ask you out west 
on a vacation and then set you to heaving 
rocks.” 

“We aren’t doing this for work—it’s because 
we want to find out something,” declared Chot. 
“I don’t mind if you don’t.” 

“No, I don’t. If we can only show Uncle Tod 
how to get back the water of Lost River— 
cracky! Wouldn’t he be surprised?” 

“I’ll say he would!” ejaculated Chot. 

It was no easy task the boys had set for them¬ 
selves, for the stone pile was large, and many 
of the boulders in it were of great size. But 
they were Scouts and not accustomed to give up 
a task just because it was difficult. 

The smaller stones they tossed out of their 
way, and the larger ones, some only after many 
trials, were rolled down the side of the valley 
after being dislodged by tree-branch levers. 

Once, just before noon, Chot straightening 
up to ease his back, looked toward the hole 
under the twisted tree roots. 


INTO THE DARK 


181 


‘ 4 There’s Ruddy at the bob cat’s den again,’ 9 
he remarked. 

“I’m not sure it ’s a bob cat, 9 ’ said Rick, 44 but 
he certainly is there,” and he looked toward 
where Ruddy was now trying to enlarge the 
hole by digging away the dirt at the lower 
edge. 4 ‘Come here, Ruddy!” called Rick. 

The dog barked, came a little way toward his 
master, reluctantly enough, and then returned 
to the hole. 

“He hates to leave it,” said Chot. 

“Must be something there,” agreed his chum. 
“We’ll set a trap there to-night.” 

“Where’ll we get a trap!” 

“Oh, Uncle Tod has some. I’d like to catch 
something. ’ ’ 

“So would I, if it isn’t a skunk,” said Chot. 

“Well, after all, it may only be a big rat, or 
some animal like a groundhog,” decided Rick, 
4 4 though I don’t know whether groundhogs live 
out here or not. All right, Ruddy,” he went 
on, speaking to his dog, “stay there if it’s any 
fun, and let us know when it comes out. ’ ’ 

Again the boys fell to work on the stone pile. 
They could see that they were making an “im¬ 
pression” on it, as Rick called it when they 


182 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


stopped to eat some of the lunch they had 
brought with them, sharing it with Ruddy. For 
there was quite a hole excavated into the pile 
of big and little boulders. 

After their meal, which was followed by a 
brief resting period, the lads again began toss¬ 
ing aside the rocks in their endeavor to see what 
lay behind them. That it was the opening into 
a tunnel beneath the mountain they hoped. 
And what they feared was that the pile of 
stones might hide but the smooth gravel side 
of the sloping hill. 

4 4 But it can’t be that, ’’ decided Rick. 4 4 These 
stones never got here naturally. They were 
piled here and there aren’t any like ’em any¬ 
where else around here.” 

44 Where do you think they came from?” 
asked Chot. 

44 From inside the tunnel that we’re going to 
find,” was Rick’s ready answer. “The stones 
were blasted out of the tunnel and piled here 
to cover up a hole, I’m sure.” 

44 Maybe so,” agreed Chot. 

It was about the middle of the afternoon that 
( hot, again straightening up, looked at his 
hands and asked, ruefully: 


INTO THE DARK 


188 


“What’s good for blisters, Rick?” 

“You getting some?” 

“Sure! Aren’t you?” 

4 ‘ A few, yes. Say, what we ought to have are 
leather gloves, or leather pads like those the 
men wear when they’re paving a street with 
granite blocks. 

“All right, chase down to the five and ten 
cent store and get a couple of pairs,” chuckled 
Chot as he gazed around on the deserted and 
desolate valley, for not a human habitation was 
in sight. 

Rick looked at Chot a moment, as if he did 
not understand, or was not thinking of what 
his chum was saying. Then Rick cried: 

“I have it—bark gloves!” 

“Bark what?” asked Chot. 

“Bark gloves! Look, we can peel off some 
bark from this tree—it’s tough and stringy. 
We can take a piece, cut a hole in for our 
thumb, and tie the bark on with string. That 
will save the palms of our hands. ’ ’ 

“That’s a good idea!” complimented Chot. 
“Let’s try it.” 

With their knives they stripped some bark 
from a tree, the name of which they did not 


184 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


know, but which bark was sufficiently tough and 
pliable to form a protective covering. Tying 
pads of this on their hands saved them from 
most of the contact with the rough stones, and 
the boys were able to work much faster now. 

They paid little attention now to Ruddy, 
though occasional glances showed them that the 
dog was still worrying away at the hole. He 
growled and whined, looking occasionally to¬ 
ward his two boy chums as if he could not 
understand why they did not take the same 
interest as did he. 

But Rick and Chot had other matters to oc¬ 
cupy their attention. They could see, now, 
that they were making an opening through 
which was, undoubtedly, a screening wall of 
stones. They did not have to toss aside the 
rocks all the way to the top, for near the summit 
some great boulders had fallen, or been placed, 
in the shape of a rude arch, supporting them¬ 
selves and the stones above and on either side. 

“If we get enough of these lower stones out 
of the way,” remarked Chot, “we can walk 
under the arch just like through a gateway.” 

“If it doesn’t fall on us,” agreed his chum, 
a bit apprehensively. 


INTO THE DARK 


185 


But neither boy dreamed of danger. Faster 
and faster they worked as they saw the after¬ 
noon sun waning, and when its shadows were 
very long suddenly Rick pulled aside a large 
stone and gave a cry. 

“Hurry!” he shouted. “Here it is, Chot!” 

“What?” asked the other, who had gone to 
the water bottle for a drink. 

“The tunnel! It’s here all right, and some 
one piled these rocks here on purpose to hide 
it. Now let’s see if we can find Lost River!” 

Chot and Rick stood side by side, gazing into 
the dark opening that had been revealed to 
them. More rocks were quickly tossed aside. 
A larger opening was seen. 

‘ ‘ Shall we go in ? ” asked Chot as they peered 
into the murky blackness. 

Rick did not answer. He was looking and 
listening. 


CHAPTER XIX 


MYSTERIOUS NOISES 



IIROUGH the black opening that con- 


JL fronted the bovs came no sound. It was 
dark and mysterious. Even Ruddy, brave as 
he was, seemed to feel some mystic spell as he 
left, for a time, the hole beneath the gnarled 
tree and came to stand beside the lads. They 
saw him slink back and his tail droop between 
his legs. 

“Shall we go in?” asked Chot again, rather 
puzzled by the silence of his chum. “Ruddy 
doesn’t seem to like it, but maybe he’ll follow 
when we go in.” 

Rick shook his head. 

“Not yet,” he answered. “Let’s wait until 
morning, and then we’ll take lanterns, ropes 
and things.” 

“And something to eat,” added Chot. “We 
may be gone all day. And are you going to 


tell Uncle Tod?” 


iso 


MYSTERIOUS NOISES 


187 


‘‘Not until we find something that's worth 
while telling," was Rick's answer. “He and 
Sam Rockford would only laugh at us if they 
came here and found out we'd chucked aside 
these stones just to uncover a hole in the side 
of the hill." 

“I think it's more than just a hole,” declared 
Chot. “Don't you think it's part of the tun¬ 
nel?" 

“I'm sure it is!" asserted Rick. “You 
wouldn't get that much air coming from just a 
hole or cave. There wouldn't be any current. 
But you can feel how hard this wind pours 
out." 

“It sure does," agreed Chot, and, indeed, 
there was a very decided current of air coming 
from the opening they had uncovered by mov¬ 
ing the stones. 

“That shows there's a shaft, or tunnel, with 
air coming in the other end," declared Rick. 
“Now the thing for us to do is to go in and—" 

“Find Lost River," interrupted Chot with a 
laugh. 

“That's it," agreed his chum. “But we'll 
go back to camp and start out again in the 
morning. ’' 


188 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

“And aren’t you going to tell Uncle Tod!” 
Chot asked. 

“Nope!” decided Rick. “Let’s have some¬ 
thing worth while to tell him.” 

“All right!” agreed Chot. 

And so it was decided. Perhaps the boys 
were foolish in this, but they did not stop to 
consider the risks they took. Few boys do. It 
is not the quality of youth to think. Rush into 
danger, and, if possible, rush out again. That 
is why youth does so much—it seldom stops to 
count the cost. 

“Come on, Ruddy!” called Rick, for the dog, 
after a brief inspection of the “tunnel,” as the 
boys called it, an inspection which did not seem 
to indicate that he liked it—had gone back to 
the hole beneath the tree. 

Through the gathering darkness, but along a 
trail they now well knew, the boys and their 
dog tramped back to Uncle Tod’s camp. They 
went by the “outside route,” as they called it, 
as distinguished from the way leading through 
the tunnel in which Lost River once flowed to 
wash out the pay dirt at the mine. 

“Where in the world have you lads been!” 
demanded Uncle Tod, as Rick, Ruddy and Chot 


MYSTERIOUS NOISES 189 

appeared some time after supper had been 
served. 

“Oh, prospecting,’’ answered Rick, vaguely 
enough. 

Uncle Tod laughed. 

“Guess he’s a chip from the old block— 
meaning myself,” he said to Sam. “Did you 
find any nuggets!” he asked. 

“Not yet,” answered Rick with a look at 
Chot to make sure his chum would say nothing 
of their discovery, which, after all, might 
amount to nothing. 

“Well, sit up and have some grub,” invited 
Sam. “I kept the beans warm for you.” 

“Thanks,” murmured Rick. 

Fortunately Uncle Tod and Sam were too 
much occupied, in talking about a promising 
prospect they had discovered that day, to pay 
great attention to the boys, and so the men did 
not closely question Rick and Chot. 

The two boys did not sleep as soundly nor as 
easily that night as they had on other nights 
since coming to Lost River camp. The reason 
was they were thinking too much about what 
might lie in that dark and mysterious hole they 
had uncovered. 


190 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


However, youth does not need very much 
sleep to refresh it, and what Rick and Chot ob¬ 
tained was enough to make them as fresh as 
daisies next morning. They were up, if not 
exactly with the lark, very shortly following 
that bird famed for early rising, and after 
breakfast Uncle Tod said: 

“Boys, Sam and I are going off prospecting. 
It’s in a hard place, or we’d ask you to come 
along. I don’t like to leave you here at the 
camp, but—” 

‘ ‘ Oh, we don’t mind, ’ ’ Rick was quick to say. 
“We’ll go off by ourselves and have some fun.” 

“All right,” agreed Uncle Tod, “but be care¬ 
ful, and take Ruddy with you. That dog knows 
a lot.” 

“He sure does,” assented Rick. 

Matters were turning out just as he and Chot 
hoped they would. The boys and dog could 
take what supplies and food they needed and 
spend all day exploring the mysterious tun¬ 
nel. 

“It couldn’t be better,” said Rick exultantly 
as Uncle Tod and his partner shuffled off down 
the trail. 


MYSTERIOUS NOISES 


191 


“That’s right,” agreed Chot. “And if we 
come back and tell ’em we’ve found Lost 
River—” 

“Oh, boy!” chanted Rick. 

They took with them everything they thought 
they would need in making the exploration, in¬ 
cluding food for themselves and Ruddy. They 
also carried water bottles, for though they were 
on the trail of a disappeared river they might 
not find it. 

Behold them then, a little later, penetrating 
into the blackness of the tunnel, flashing on the 
sides and roof gleams from lanterns they car¬ 
ried—oil lanterns, with electric flashlights in 
their pockets for use in emergencies. 

“Do you think we might get walled up in 
here?” asked Chot, as he and his chum, with 
Ruddy, passed beneath the overhanging arch 
of fantastic boulders, below which they had dug 
the hole for themselves. 

“Walled up; what do you mean?” asked 
Rick. 

“I mean if these rocks took a notion to tumble 
down they’d fill the opening we made and may¬ 
be we couldn’t get out.” 


192 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Oh, I don’t believe that will happen,” said 
Rick with the careless and joyous abandon of 
youth. 

And so they went in. Ruddy hung back for 
a moment, as if a bit suspicious of the under¬ 
taking, but when Rick called to his dog the 
faithful companion of more than one exciting 
adventure came on with a wag of his tail as 
if saying: 

“Well, if anything happens it’s your fault.” 

The boys had not pentrated many hundred 
feet into what was, undoubtedly a tunnel under 
the hill, or mountain, before they saw unmis¬ 
takable signs that water had, at no distant time, 
flowed there. Marks on the floor and walls 
showed them this, and there were, on rocky 
ledges several feet up from the floor, masses 
of dried sticks, leaves and other debris that in¬ 
dicated how the tunnel stream, at times, rose 
to higher levels. In receding, this debris was 
left caught in cracks and on ledges. 

“But where is the river now!” asked Chot, 
for there was no sign of moisture. The sides 
and bottom of the tunnel were very dry. 

“I think some one took it,” was Rick’s an¬ 
swer. 



“But where is the river now?" asked Chot 








MYSTERIOUS NOISES 


193 


“You dol Took it?” 

“Sure! I mean some one has changed the 
course of this stream. Lost River used to run 
through this tunnel. Now it doesn’t, and some 
one blasted out a lot of rocks from the end 
where we just came in and piled them up to 
hide the tunnel. I believe some one wanted 
the water of this river for their own mines, or 
maybe for farm irrigation, and they just 
changed the course of it. ’’ 

“How could they?” 

“That’s what we’ve got to find out,” said 
Rick. “Come on, it may be a long way to the 
other end.” 

The tunnel they were now in was as black, 
as dismal and as mysterious as the one they 
had walked through, starting at Uncle Tod’s 
camp and ending at the heap of stones. They 
went carefully, to avoid falling into holes or 
deep cracks, and swung their lanterns to and 
fro. Ruddy, contrary to his usual habit, did not 
run on ahead, to explore on his own account. 
He kept close to the boys as if afraid. 

The tunnel wound to right and left, like some 
gigantic snake. It was about twenty-five feet 
wide on the average, sometimes more and some- 


194 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


times less. In places the roof was not more 
than ten feet above the heads of the boys and, 
again, they would be unable to see it in the 
gleam of their most powerful flash lights. 

44 Must be a hundred feet up or more,” said 
Rick after one of these tests. 

4 ‘I believe you,” Chot answered. 

On and on they went, stopping now and then 
to listen for any sound that would indicate 
water. But no trickling, murmur or a louder 
thunder, that might mean a hidden waterfall, 
came to their ears. 

44 Where do you reckon that river is!” asked 
Chot, after a while. 

“You’ve got me,” admitted Rick. 44 But it 
has been here, that’s sure, and we haven’t come 
to the end yet. ’ ’ 

This was true, for the tunnel still stretched 
its black, winding and mysterious length ahead 
of them. The way was not without its dangers, 
for, more than once, Rick found himself step¬ 
ping on the very edge of a black hole. 

And once Chot would have fallen into a dis¬ 
mal chasm but that he caught hold of a pro¬ 
jecting spur of rock and so saved himself. 
However these dangers seemed to the boys no 


MYSTERIOUS NOISES 


195 


more than others they had encountered when 
on previous excursions afield and in the forest. 
They were young and active, and to them a miss 
was as good as a mile, or i ‘ even a mile and a 
half,” as Rick said. 

It was nearly noon, which fact Chot ascer¬ 
tained by a look at his cheap but reliable watch, 
and he was about to propose that they stop and 
eat when suddenly the hitherto silence of the 
tunnel was broken by a strange, mysterious 
noise. It was like some dismal giant groaning 
in agony. 

“What’s that?” asked Chot in a tense whis¬ 
per. 

1 i I don’t know, ’ 9 answered Rick. * 4 Listen! ’ ’ 

Ruddy set up a frightened howling. 


CHAPTER XX 


A STRANGE CAMP 

T HROUGH the air, over the heads of Rick, 
Chot and Ruddy, now seemingly on one 
side and now on the other—surrounding them, 
as it were—the mysterious noise came and went. 
Now it almost died away—an expiring groan 
it might be from some unseen inhabitant of 
the tunnel. Then again, it would fairly howl 
around them. And at the conclusion of one of 
these weird howls Ruddy again joined his voice 
to that of the unseen one, making so nerve- 
racking a combination of notes as to cause cold 
shivers to run down the spines of the lads. 

4 ‘Whew!” whistled Chot, as the sound seemed 
to vanish into the mysterious black recesses of 
the place, “this is too much for me!” 

“You’re not going to quit; are you!” cried 
Rick, for he saw the light of Chot’s lantern 
drawing away. 

“Why not?” demanded Chot. “This is 

196 



A STRANGE CAMP 


197 


fierce! You aren’t going to stay; are you?” 

“Fm going to stay and I’m going on!” de¬ 
clared Rick firmly. 

44 Well,” went on Chot, 44 I’m not going to de¬ 
sert, but when Ruddy howls like he did—that’s 
enough. There’s something unhuman here, 
Rick. ’ ’ 

44 It doesn’t sound very pleasant,” admitted 
the boy. 44 There it comes again!” he cried, as, 
once more, the mysterious noise filled the black 
tunnel, which the lanterns of the boys seemed 
to make only the darker. 

Around them, above them, on all sides of the 
lads circulated that weird sighing, howling, 
groaning and yelling noise, as though hundreds 
of imps of blackness were calling to each other 
in the gloom, laughing in fiendish glee at the 
plight of the boys. 

Ruddy once more howled dismally, ending 
with such a queer note of protest in his voice 
that, in spite of his fears, Rick laughed. 

44 What’s the matter, old fellow?” he asked, 
as he patted the dog’s head. 44 Can’t you stand 
a little groaning?” 

44 If we only knew what it was,” spoke Chot 
in rather a chattering voice. 4 4 Do you reckon 


198 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

that’s just the wind making echoes in here, 
Rick?” 

“First I thought it was the wind, maybe 
blowing through holes in the rocks,” said Rick. 
“I remember reading in the book ‘Tom 
Brown’s Schooldays’ how there was a ‘blowing 
stone’ as it was called. A man in an inn blew 
through a hole in the stone back of the fire¬ 
place and the sound came out of a hill half a 
mile off. I thought maybe it was like that here, 
but there’s no wind.” 

“No,” agreed Chot, “or, anyhow, there isn’t 
enough wind to make all those howls. It blows 
a little, but not enough for that. ’ ’ 

The boys, as I have told you, noticed a wind 
blowing toward them through the tunnel as soon 
as they opened the closed end by removing the 
barrier stones. And after entering the black 
horizontal shaft they had been aware of a con¬ 
stant current of air in their faces, showing that 
there was an opening at the farther end which 
they had not yet reached. But, as Chot re¬ 
marked, there was not enough of the wind, or 
air current, to account for the noises. 

“If the wind made it,” said Chot, “weVI feel 
a sudden breeze as soon as the sound came.” 


A STRANGE CAMP 


199 


“That’s right,” agreed Rick. 

Again echoed the howls and wails, like those 
of the fabled banshee of Ireland, but the boys 
only felt the same gentle air currents in their 
faces. 

4 6 It might be there is a current of air higher 
up, away over our heads, that we don’t feel,” 
suggested Chot. “That might cause it.” 

“We’ll see,” said Rick. He carried a long 
pole, and on the end of this he put the handle 
of an oil lantern, raising the light as high as he 
could toward the roof. “If there’s a current 
there it will flicker the light,” Rick told his 
chum. 

The two boys watched the lantern. It’s flame 
burned as steadily as when Rick had held it, 
showing that there was no increase in the air 
current higher toward the roof. And yet the 
strange sounds kept up. 

“Well they can’t hurt us; that’s sure,” said 
Rick, as he brought his lantern down. “I say 
let’s go on.” 

“All right,” answered Chot, but there was 
not much enthusiasm in his voice. 

The mysterious sounds kept up as the boys 
and the dog advanced, but Ruddy no longer 


200 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


howled in concert with them. Perhaps he felt 
that it would do no good, and then, too, the con¬ 
fidence the boys exhibited, though perhaps they 
did not feel, made an impression on the setter. 
At any rate he seemed more contented. 

And then, almost as suddenly as they had 
started, the noises died away. Gradually they 
became less in volume until finally the boys no¬ 
ticed it. Rick was the first to speak about it. 

“Say,” he called to Chot, 44 we haven’t heard 
that howling for some time; have we!” 

44 No, and I wish it would stop forever,” said 
Chot fervently. 

4 4 It might be that you can only hear it in 
that part of the tunnel where we were,” went 
on Rick. 

44 How do you mean?” asked his chum. 

44 Well, I mean it’s an echo and you can only 
hear it in certain places. You know back in 
Frog Hollow at home, there’s one place where 
there’s a big echo, but ten feet on either side 
of it you can’t make it echo at all.” 

44 Yes, I remember that,” admitted Chot. 44 It 
might be like that. Anyhow the howls have 
stopped.” 

And so they had—at least the boys did not 


A STRANGE CAMP 


201 


hear them any more. This was a relief to 
them, and they began to feel hungry. They 
found some flat rocks, raised from the floor of 
the old river tunnel bed, and sat on these to 
open their lunch packets and water bottles, 
feeding Ruddy on the scraps and pouring out 
some water for him in the hollow of a rock. 

“He hasn’t lost his appetite, anyhow,’’ re¬ 
marked Rick with a laugh, as he noticed how 
eager Ruddy was for crusts and bits of meat. 

“He hardly ever does,” agreed Chot. 

Then the boys kept on again, moving cau¬ 
tiously through the black tunnel. At one point 
they came to a ledge of rock over which, it was 
evident, some underground waterfall had tum¬ 
bled when the river ran through the concealed 
cavern. But now the cascade was dry. 

“Guess we’re stuck,” remarked Chot, as he 
looked at the abrupt face of the rock over which 
water had formerly toppled. 

“Maybe we can climb it on one side or the 
other,” suggested Rick. 

This they found they could do, Ruddy manag¬ 
ing to scramble up after they had helped him 
over the worst places. 

Again they found a fairly level road before 


202 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


them—a road that sloped slightly upward, this 
slope giving the downward current to Lost 
River where it had emerged at Uncle Tod’s 
mine. 

Suddenly, as Chot walked along a little in ad¬ 
vance, he gave an exclamation. 

“What is it!” asked Rick, who was flashing 
his light upward, trying to ascertain how high 
the roof was. 

“I see daylight!” cried Chot. 

Rick hurried to his chum’s side. Gleaming 
ahead of them was unmistakably daylight, com¬ 
ing through an irregularly shaped opening like 
another mouth to the tunnel. And, as the boys 
advanced nearer they saw, moving about, in the 
open beyond the tunnel’s mouth, several men. 

“Go easy!” whispered Rick, catching his 
chum by the arm. 

41 All right, ’ ’ assented Chot. Ruddy was held 
back. The boys cautiously advanced until they 
could look out upon a level place, seemingly 
in some valley and there, hidden from view 
as they were in the tunnel, they saw a strange 
camp. 


CHAPTER XXI 


SCOUTING AROUND 

F OR a moment or two both Rick and Chot 
thought that they had played a trick upon 
themselves, and that they were gazing upon the 
headquarters of Uncle Tod and Sam Rockford 
who might be entertaining guests. The same 
idea was in the mind of both boys. They 
jumped to the conclusion that they had circled 
about in the tunnel, had, somehow or other, 
gotten into the same shaft they had first ex¬ 
plored with Uncle Tod and so had doubled 
back on their trail. 

For there was almost the same outfit as that 
at Uncle Tod’s camp—the log shack, a tent 
—and, scattered about, were some mining im¬ 
plements, while at one side a flume box had 
been set up. 

But there was this difference—there was 
water running into this flume box, while back at 
Uncle Tod’s camp his box was dry. 

203 



204 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


It was this welcome sight of the much-needed 
water that first convinced the boys they were 
looking at another camp—a strange one— 
rather than at Uncle Tod’s, though both outfits 
were much alike. But one camp was dry and 
the other was wet. Lost River seemed to be 
favoring this camp as against the other. 

Then, too, as the boys looked with less ex¬ 
citement pumping at their hearts, they noticed 
that all the men were strangers. Neither Un¬ 
cle Tod nor Sam Rockford was among them, 
and no men that the boys had ever seen before, 
though they had met several friends of Uncle 
Tod and his partner. 

Also, as their eyes took in further details of 
the strange camp, they saw very many points 
of difference. The log cabin was much smaller 
and was not so well built, nor w T as the tent the 
same. The flume box was much larger, though 
not so solidly constructed—in short hardly any 
details of the two camps were alike, though in 
general one resembled the other. Of course the 
men were totally different. 

“It’s another place all right,” whispered 
Chot. 

“Yes,” agreed Rick, while he cautioned 



SCOUTING AROUND 


205 


Ruddy, in a low voice, to remain qniet. He did 
not want a whimper, whine or bark of his dog 
to betray their presence back there in the tun¬ 
nel. “EM you think it was our camp!” asked 
Rick. 

“For a minute I did,” assented Chot. 
‘ ‘ Didn ’t you ! ’ ’ 

“Yep. I thought we’d doubled back through 
the tunnel somehow.” 

“So did I. But what’s it all about, Rick!” 

‘‘1 don’t know, Chot. But I can make a guess 
at one thing. ’ ’ 

“What’s that!” 

“Those are the men—or, anyhow, they’re in 
the same gang—that took away Lost River.” 

“What do you mean—took away Lost 
River?” 

“Look,” went on Rick, still speaking in a 
whisper. “You can see where the channel was, 
running right into this tunnel. There’s the old 
bed of the river. Now it’s running off to the 
left so it flows into their flume box. They 
changed the river, that’s what they did.” 

“I believe you’re right,” said Chot, after 
looking over the outlay that was before them. 
They could see it well, hidden as they were just 


206 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


inside the tunnel entrance. “But how could 
they make a river run in a new place !” 

“By making a dam, or digging a new chan¬ 
nel. I don’t see that they have dug any new 
channel, so they must have built a dam, or 
some sort of thing to send the river dow T n the 
way they wanted it instead of letting it come 
through the tunnel to Uncle Tod’s mine.” 

“But where is the dam, or whatever it is! 
I don’t see anything like it here.” 

“No, it’s probably up above their camp. 
We’ll have to prospect around a bit and find 
it.” 

“S’posin’ they see us!” 

“We mustn’t let ’em. We can mosey 
around after dark.” 

“Then we’re going to stay here all night!” 

“I don’t see what else to do. We could 
hardly get back to camp until very late, any¬ 
how, and we’ve got our blankets and some grub. 
It won’t be cold in here.” 

“That’s right! It’ll be fun!” exclaimed 
Chot. 

“And we don’t want to go back and tell Un¬ 
cle Tod what we’ve found until we can tell 
him everything,” went on Rick, who liked to 


SCOUTING AROUND 


207 


be thorough and complete in his work or play. 

“That’s so,” agreed his chum. i1 Maybe, af¬ 
ter all, we’re up the wrong tree and these men 
didn’t change the river.” 

“Oh, I think they did—or somebody in with 
’em,” said Rick. “But I’d like to find the 
dam—or whatever it is—and then we can tell 
Uncle Tod and let him do what he thinks 
best.” 

“I guess you’re right,” assented Chot. 
“Well, what’ll we do first, Rick?” 

“Well, let’s just stay here and we can see 
what the men do. Maybe we can hear what 
they say.” 

Ruddy had quieted down, now that he saw his 
boy chums had no present intentions of engag¬ 
ing in anything that needed his canine wit, and 
was stretched out on the floor of the cave, mak¬ 
ing up some of the sleep he evidently thought 
he had lost. Rick and Chot remained just in¬ 
side the opening of the tunnel—the opening 
through which it was evident Lost River had 
flowed at no very distant date. 

The stream, it seemed was a peculiar one. 
At times it flowed along in the open, like any 
other river or creek. Then it would dive under- 


208 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


ground, proceeding through a tunnel, or a se¬ 
ries of tunnels. Then it would emerge again. 
The boys had been through some of the tunnels 
of Lost River, and there might be more further 
up the mountain. Of this they could not be 
certain. 

At any rate they had come out at the end 
of one tunnel through which could be seen the 
strange camp, and as water was flowing in 
the flume box here, probably washing out “pay 
dirt,” it was reasonable to suppose the men had 
turned the river for their own use. 

Just how such a big undertaking could be ac¬ 
complished without considerable engineering 
work the boys did not know. But they had 
made up their minds to find out. 

“We’ll just stay here until after dark,” sug¬ 
gested Rick, “and then, we’ll scout around a 
bit.” 

“Have to go slow on the grub though,” pro¬ 
posed Chot, as, in the dim light that filtered in 
through the tunnel opening he inspected what 
food they had left. “We’ve got to get two 
or three more meals out of this.” 

“We can, I guess,” said Rick. “And maybe 
we can shoot something,” for the boys had 


SCOUTING AROUND 209 

brought guns with them, and knew how to use 
them. 

‘ 4 Won’t they hear us if we shoot?” asked 
Ohot. ‘‘Besides, there’s no game in here.” 

‘‘Oh, I don’t mean to shoot in here,” chuckled 
Rick. “We’ll go outside—farther up the 
mountain where they won’t hear the guns. 
Besides, we got to work our way farther up 
to find the dam, or whatever it is that has 
changed the river.” 

“I see,” agreed Chot. “Well, what say we 
eat now? It’s most supper time.” 

“I guess it is,” assented Rick. “They’re 
getting their grub ready.” 

Some of the men could be seen busy about 
the camp fire, over w r hich hung a kettle, and 
the boys wished they might have somd of the 
savory soup or stew it undoubtedly contained. 

However they w r ere on an important quest, 
and they did not mind eating a cold meal. 
This they did, giving Ruddy odds and ends. 
Their water was getting low, but they were now 
within sight of Lost River and did not fear 
thirst. 

“We can sneak out in the night and get 
some,” proposed Chot. 



210 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


44 That’s when we want to scout around—af¬ 
ter dark,” said Rick. “I think there’s a moon 
to-night.” 

In silence they sat on rocks, just within the 
mouth of the tunnel and ate their meal. They 
watched the miners at their supper not many 
hundred feet away, and it was plain that the 
stealers of Lost River, as they might be called, 
were unaware that they were being spied upon. 

They laughed and joked—one even tried to 
sing—but the wind was blowing the wrong way 
and though a confused murmur came to the 
boys they could not distinguish what was said. 

Rick had guessed right about the moon. 
There was one, it was at the full, and gave a 
glorious light from an unclouded sky. The 
boys stretched out to rest on their blankets 
before setting out on their scouting expedition. 
The men sat around the camp fire smoking and 
talking, and then one after another 4 4 turned 
in.” They left no one on sentinel or guard 
duty, the boys noticed. 

4 4 It’ll be easy,” whispered Rick as they pre¬ 
pared to leave the tunnel. 

4 4 What about Ruddy ? ’ ’ asked Chot. 4 4 Won’t 
he make a noise?” 



SCOUTING AROUND 


211 


“Not as much as we do. He’s a game dog 
and used to going quietly. I wouldn’t want 
to leave him behind.” 

“No, I guess not. Well, let’s go!” 

And then in silence the boys, clutching their 
guns which Uncle Tod had given them, started 
from the tunnel, followed by Ruddy who moved 
like a shadow. They skirted the camp of 
sleeping men and began scouting around for a 
trail that would lead up the mountain, along 
Lost River until they could discover where it 
had been diverted. 


CHAPTER XXII 


SOLVING THE SECRET 

T HOUGH the moon shone brightly, there 
were shadows in the forest that sur¬ 
rounded the mysterious camp—mysterious in 
the sense that the boys did not know whose it 
was. And these shadows made silent progress 
difficult. Rick and Chot were very likely to 
slip and stumble over a rock or fallen branch, 
making a noise that would arouse the sleeping 
men. 

Several times they did stumble, and thus 
Ruddy had the advantage over them, for his 
padded paws made no sound. But though the 
boys made several noises none of them seemed 
to have any effect. It remained dark and quiet 
in the camp—dark that is save for a glimmer¬ 
ing camp fire and the silvery moon, the light 
of which was very welcome to the boys. 

There was little for the lads to discover in 

the camp itself. They had learned this much 

212 


SOLVING THE SECRET 


213 


while taking observations from their hiding 
place just within the tunnel. From their van¬ 
tage point they had seen the water coming down 
a rocky defile, though its exact source they 
could only guess at. They could not tell 
whether it came through another tunnel—part 
of the series of mysterious underground chan¬ 
nels in that part of the country—or whether it 
flowed along in the open. 

This secret they hoped to solve on their night- 
scouting expedition, and after they had made a 
detour of the camp they listened for a sound 
of rippling or gurgling water which would put 
them on the right track. 

“Well, so far so good,” remarked Chot when 
they had gotten safely some distance up the 
trail, above the log shack and the sleeping men. 

“That’s right,” agreed Rick. “Ruddy, 
you’re a dandy!” he said to the dog. “You 
didn’t make a false move.” 

“And not as much noise as we did,” added 
Chot as they both petted their canine compan¬ 
ion. 

“I should say so!” chuckled Rick. “That 
time we both nearly fell—I thought sure they’d 
hear us.” 


214 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

4 4 So did I. But I reckon we ’re all right now. ” 

44 I guess so.” 

They had come out from under a clump of 
trees and were walking along a rough trail that 
led up the mountain. The moon shone glori¬ 
ously making objects very plain to see. There 
was little wind and soon the boys heard the 
murmur of water off to their left—a sound 
for which eagerly they had been listening. 

44 There , s the river,” exclaimed Chot. 

44 1 hear it,” admitted Rick. 44 Either the 
one we’re after or another. Let’s head over 
that way.” 

They walked on side by side, with Ruddy 
trailing them. Rick had ordered his dog to 
heel, for he did not want the setter rushing on 
ahead through the brush, perhaps stirring up 
a skunk or some small wild animal that might 
cause the dog to bark, thus betraying their 
presence. 

As they went on, the noise of the water be¬ 
came louder to their ears, until at last they 
emerged in view of a beautiful stream flowing 
in the centre of a small valley, bordered on 
either side by trees and bushes. 

Though the stream was called Lost River, or 


SOLVING THE SECRET 


215 


by various other names in which the word 
“river” occurred, it must not be supposed that 
it was a large waterway. In fact it was not 
more than a good-sized brook, in places, though 
in others it attained the width of wdiat, in 
some parts of the country, is called a creek. 
But Lost River it had been christened and so 
it shall remain, as far as I am concerned. 

The boys stood for a moment impressed by 
the beauty of the scene that they had come 
upon. Under the moon everything was glori¬ 
fied—the rippling, sparkling water, the trees, 
the bushes and even the rough rocks. 

“Say, this is slick!” exclaimed Chot, paying 
one of the highest compliments in his rather 
limited vocabulary. 

“Nifty!” agreed Rick, adding his tribute. 

But, boy like, they did not pause long to ad¬ 
mire just the mere beauty of the place, romantic 
as it was. They had come upon sterner busi¬ 
ness, and Rick gave a hint of it when he said: 

“Chot, I don't believe this stream has 
flowed here very long.” 

‘ ‘ Why not ? How can you tell ! 9 9 

“Because it's too near the trees and bushes. 
And there aren 9 t many stones along the banks. 


216 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

When a river has run a long time in a place it 
washes away the dirt and leaves a lot of rocks, 
and where it washes away the dirt from tree 
roots the trees partly die. But this looks like 
a river that has suddenly been turned loose in 
the woods.” 

“That’s what it does,” assented Chot. “Do 
you think the men turned it in here f’ 9 

“I guess they did,” agreed Rick. “And the 
thing for us to do is to find out where they 
turned it, and shift it back again so it will run 
into Uncle Tod’s tunnel.” 

“Do you think we can?” asked Chot. 

“I hope so,” answered Rick. “Let’s keep 
on.” 

They walked for a few minutes longer and 
then suddenly, over their heads in a big tree, 
there was a rustling in the branches—a rustling 
not caused by the wind, for there was no hint of 
a breeze then. 

“What’s that?” whispered Chot, ready with 
his gun. 

“I don’t know,” answered Rick, as he, too, 
brought his weapon around. Uncle Tod had 
given the boys each a light shot gun, and they 
had learned to pick off small game in the woods, 


SOLVING THE SECRET 217 

shooting, however, only enongh for actual 
needs. 

The lads stared up in the tree. The rustling 
of the branches continued and Ruddy, seeing 
that some business in which he ought to take an 
interest was afoot, stood at attention. Sud¬ 
denly the dog growled and immediately there 
was a hiss above the boys’ heads as if an angry 
cat were there. 

“Look!” whispered Chot, and Rick saw that 
his chum was pointing to two blazing, greenish, 
reddish spots of light; the eyes of some animal 
on which the moon reflected. 

Chot raised his gun, but Rick said: 

“Don’t shoot!” 

“Why not!” 

“It’s only a small bob cat and he won’t hurt 
us if we go away. Shooting will only wake up 
those men, and we haven’t found what we want 
yet.” 

“But aren’t bob cats dangerous?” 

“Not if you leave ’em alone, Uncle Tod told 
me. And we’ll leave this one alone.” 

Ruddy had now seen the lithe form of the 
lynx stretched out on a tree branch overhead. 
It was not a large animal—in fact not much 


218 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


larger than some overgrown house cat. Of 
course it was more dangerous if cornered, but, 
as Rick had observed, it would not needlessly 
attack them if not molested. 

Ruddy growled as if eager for the fray; but 
Rick knew even a large setter dog is no match 
for a small bob cat, and he ordered Ruddy 
away. The lynx continued to snarl as it 
glared at those it evidently regarded as its ene¬ 
mies, and remained in watchful readiness on 
the branch as Cliot and Rick went on their way. 

“I’d like to have taken a pop at him,” said 
Chot regretfully. 

“So’d I,” admitted Rick. “But shot guns 
aren’t much good against a lynx—not little shot 
guns like ours. And, anyhow, we don’t want 
to stir up those men.” 

Chot agreed to this, and they kept on up along 
the river. 

“ ’Tisn’t so much a lost river now,” observed 
Chot as the stream murmured beside them. 

“No, but it’s lost as far as Uncle Tod is con¬ 
cerned, ’ ’ remarked Rick. 4 ‘ That is until he can 
shift it back—if he can.” 

The boys made a turn in the trail and sud¬ 
denly became aware of a slightly different 


SOLVING THE SECRET 


219 


sound made by the water. It was a splashing 
noise, as though a cascade were not far away. 

‘ 4 What do you imagine that is ?’ ’ asked Chot. 

“Well soon find out,” said Rick for, as they 
advanced they heard the strange sound more 
plainly. 

And then, as they pushed their way through 
a fringe of bushes growing close to the edge of 
the stream the lads made a strange discovery. 

Thev had solved the secret of Lost River! 

w 


CHAPTER XXIII 


CARRYING THE GOOD NEWS 

HOT, would you look at that!” ex¬ 
claimed Rick. 

“I am looking at it!” Chot fairly shouted. 
No longer was it necessary to subdue their 
voices. They were far enough away from the 
strange camp so that no sound they made could 
be heard in it. 4 ‘What do you reckon that is, 
Rick?” 

Without answering, Rick and Ruddy, fol¬ 
lowed by Chot, drew nearer to some form of 
rude, rough-and-ready engineering work built 
across a place where the stream took a sharp 
turn, curving down through a channel that na¬ 
ture, or perhaps Lost River itself, had carved 
out through the long centuries. 

And right at the curve was a sort of dam, 
fitted with water gates and levers, like those of 
a mill, or canal lock, so the water, at will, could 
be diverted into a new channel. 



220 


CARRYING THE GOOD NEWS 


221 


And that Lost River was now flowing into a 
new channel could not be doubted. Even in 
the moonlight, veiled as it was now and then by 
clouds, could be seen where the stream had 
once flowed. There was the rocky bed—now 
dry—but evidence enough that had the stream 
been left to itself it would have come through 
the various tunnels and so reach Uncle Tod’s 
camp. 

But the dam had changed its course—had 
switched the stream so that it ran into the 
flume of the strange men just at the point 
where it should have gone into the long tun¬ 
nel through which the boys had made their peri¬ 
lous way. 

“This is how they turned the trick, Chot,” 
said Rick, as they walked out on a plank bridge 
over the dam, and saw where the wooden gates 
had been put in. The gates, of which there 
were two sets, slid up and down in grooves and 
could be raised or lowered by long wooden 
levers. 

“This is how it works!” exclaimed Chot. 
“Look, Rick, when they want water down in 
their camp they open the gates on the right and 
close them on the left.” 



222 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“You said it!’’ cried Rick. ‘‘And when they 
want to let water run down to Uncle Tod’s 
camp they would have to close the right gates 
and open the left ones.” 

“But they don't want to let water run down 
to Uncle Tod’s camp—that’s just the trouble,” 
said Chot. 

“It’s part of the trouble, but not all,” went 
on Rick. “Why did they put gates in here if, 
sometime, they didn’t want to let water run 
down the underground tunnels as it used to?” 

“I don’t quite get that,” said Chot. 

“Well, here is my notion,” proceeded Rick. 
‘ 4 Here, you, Ruddy! Come back! ’ ’ ordered his 
master, for the setter, sensing that he was not 
to be held in such restraint as heretofore, was 
nosing about more freely. 

The dog obediently came to his master and 
Rick went on with what he started to say. 

“ It’s like this, I think, ’ ’ he resumed. 4 ‘ These 
miners, whoever they are, struck some such pay 
streak as Uncle Tod did, but they needed water 
to work it. They couldn’t get water to their 
place with Lost River running where it was, 
and so they changed the course of the stream. 
They built this dam right where it curves and 


CARRYING THE GOOD NEWS 


228 


that was easy. But they must have had an 
idea that, sometime, they’d want to turn the 
water back again into the tunnel, so they made 
these gates. Then all they have to do is to 
open one set and close the other and the trick is 
done.” 

“But why would they want to turn the water 
back into the tunnel ? ’ ’ asked Chot. 

“There’s two reasons,” answered Rick. 
“One is Uncle Tod might make ’em—he could 
bring a lawsuit or something and make ’em put 
the river back where it was before.” 

“That’s a good reason, but I guess from the 
way Sam Rockford talked there isn’t much 
law out here,” said Chot. 

“Well, there’s some law, or it can be brought 
here,” declared Rick. “But the main reason, 
I think, why the men made gates to turn the 
river back into the tunnel, is so they could use 
the water themselves. Use it at Uncle Tod’s 
camp, I mean.” 

“How could they use it there?” Chot wanted 
to know. “Your Uncle wouldn’t let ’em!” 

“Not while he was there,” agreed Rick. 
“But—s’posin’ he left—gave up—then any¬ 
body that wanted to could jump the claim.” 


224 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

“That’s so,” burst out Chot. “You mean 
your uncle might give up if he thought Lost 
River wouldn’t come back?” 

“That’s it,” answered Rick. “And maybe 
these men figure on that. ’ ’ 

Chot paused for a moment to let this “sink 
in,” as he afterward said, and then exclaimed: 

“You mean they moved the river just to 
make his mine go dry, and they want to drive 
him out and jump the claim themselves—is that 
it, Rick?” 

“That’s my idea,” answered Ruddy’s master. 
“They built this dam and put in the water 
gates. Then they shut off Uncle Tod’s water 
supply and his mine went dry, while theirs 
could be worked. I reckon they figured that 
he’d give up—not knowing what happened to 
Lost River. Then, when he quit they planned 
to come in and take his claim.” 

“But that’s mean! That isn’t fair!” cried 
Chot. 

“Sure it’s mean!” assented Rick. “But I 
don’t reckon those men care. There isn’t much 
law out here.” 

“We’ll show ’em!” muttered Chot. “We’ll 


CARRYING THE GOOD NEWS 225 

show 'em there is! What are you going to do, 
Rick? ” 

“Well, I guess we’d better—” 

Before he finished his answer Chot burst out 
with: 

4 4 Let ’s turn the water ourselves! Let’s close 
their gates and open the others and send Lost 
River back where it belongs!” 

Impulsively Chot started toward one of the 
levers. 

‘‘Don’t!” cried Rick. 

“Why not?” 

“Better let Uncle Tod and his partner attend 
to this,” suggested Rick. “They’ll know what 
to do. We’ll hike back and tell them what 
we’ve found.” 

“Oh, shucks!” exclaimed Chot. “Let’s do 
it ourselves! We can easy lift the gates and 
close the others!” 

Rick was half tempted. It would be a fine 
thing to boast of—to have discovered the secret 
of Lost River and to have turned the water 
back where it belonged. But there were other 
things to think of. True there was little law 
out in this part of the west, but there might be 


226 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


enough to uphold the men in what they had done 
to divert the stream. It was better to let older 
heads settle this point. 

“No, well go tell Uncle Tod,” decided Rick. 

Chot whistled dismally. 

“It’s a long hike back there,’’ he said. 

“We won’t start until morning,” decided 
Rick. “We’ll camp here until then. We have 
our blankets.” 

Even though they were Boy Scouts, and ac¬ 
customed to sleeping in the open with not much 
more than a blanket, it cannot be said that 
the boys passed a very comfortable night. It 
was unusually cold in the mountains. But 
Ruddy snuggled down with them and they man¬ 
aged to get a little sleep. 

They made a slim breakfast, gave one look 
at the construction of the dam and water gates 
so that they could report the plan of it to 
Uncle Tod, and then started back, going a 
roundabout way to escape the camp. 

This necessitated proceeding “overland” so 
to speak, instead of through the tunnel, and 
was longer, but they had the advantage of day¬ 
light and really made better time. 

“Well, where in the name of the great horned 


CARRYING THE GOOD NEWS 227 

toad have you boys been?” greeted Uncle Tod 
as they entered the camp and found two rather 
worried men to welcome them. 

“Oh, we’ve been prospecting,’’ said Rick. 

“Find anything?” asked Sam, dismally. 

“Yes—something,” answered Rick, trying 
not to have his voice too eager. 

“Pay dirt?” inquired Uncle Tod eagerly. 

“Well it’s water instead of dirt,” answered 
Rick. “We went prospecting for Lost River 
and—” 

“We found it!” burst out Ohot, unable to 
keep still longer. 

“You found what?” fairly shouted Uncle 
Tod. 

“Lost River,” said Rick, modestly enough. 
“We found where it has been turned off and 
we can show you how to turn it back again.” 

“Whoop!” yelled Sam, joyful for once in his 
life. “That’s the best news I’ve heard since 
the doctor said I had the measles and couldn’t 
go to school! Oh, whoopee!” 


CHAPTER XXIV 


TURNING LOST RIVER BACK 


NCLE TOD, now that the first excitement 



\^J was over, sat down on a stump near the 
log cabin shack and looked seriously and quiz¬ 
zically at Rick and Chot. Ruddy had discov¬ 
ered a bone that he had buried a few days be¬ 
fore, in case he might get hungry during the 
night, and the dog now dug up this tidbit and 
proceeded to enjoy himself. Evidently he was 
glad to get back home again. 

4 ‘Look here, boys,” said Uncle Tod seriously, 
11 this is all straight is it—I mean about you 
finding Lost River?” 

“Of course it is,” declared Rick. 

“Pretty hard for anything as crooked as 
Lost River to be straight I guess!” chuckled 
Sam. This was as near to a joke as he ever 
got. 

“Well, I mean you aren’t playing tricks on 
your old uncle; are you, Rick,” went on Mr. 


228 


TURNING LOST RIVER BACK 


229 


Belmont. “I know you sometime^do joke, but 
you aren’t doing that now; are you?” He 
glanced sharply at the boy. 

Uncle Tod was very much in earnest and 
there was a look on his face which would have 
caused Rick to feel badly had the lad been 
playing any tricks. But he was not. 

“We really found Lost River,” he said. 
“And we know how to turn it back again; 
don’t we Chotf” 

“We sure do! I wanted to turn it before 
we came away, but Rick said we’d better let 
you do it.” 

“Tell us about it!” begged Uncle Tod, and 
even Sam seemed to glow with a more kindly 
and happier feeling since hearing the good 
news. 

Thereupon the boys detailed all their experi¬ 
ences on their expedition of discovery, begin¬ 
ning at the time when Rick first suspected that 
possibly the river might be located somewhere 
to the south and west of the tunnel passage 
through which it had ceased to flow. 

“You boys had nerve to go through that sec¬ 
ond dark tunnel, not knowing what you might 
find,” said Uncle Tod admiringly. 


230 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

“Nothing happened to amount to anything,” 
said Rick. 

“No, but think of what might have hap¬ 
pened P’ exclaimed Sam. “You might both 
have fallen down some hole—yes, and Ruddy, 
too, and we’d never know what had become of 
you.” 

“But it didn’t happen!” laughed Rick. 

“Now about these men in the camp you 
speak of,” went on Uncle Tod. “Who were 
they!” 

“We don’t know,” answered Rick. “Never 
saw any of ’em before. We couldn’t get close 
enough to hear what they said, or any names 
they used, but they looked like miners.” 

“Must be the Lawson gang,” said Sam to 
Uncle Tod. 

“I reckon,” was the answer. “It would be 
like them to try a game of this sort.” 

“The Lawson gang’ll do anything!” Sam as¬ 
serted. 

“But I haven’t heard of them being round 
this valley in a long time,” said Uncle Tod, who 
had lived in this part of the west many years 
before going east to develop his salt land. 



TURNING LOST RIVER BACK 


231 


“Well it's the Lawson gang, Pm pretty 
sure,” said Sam. “Worse luck!” 

“What is the Lawson gang?” asked Rick. 

‘ ‘ A crowd of men, led by a man named Deck 
Lawson/’ answered Uncle Tod. “They make 
a speciality of jumping claims and stealing 
mines, and I suppose they must have heard 
that we had a good thing here as long as we 
could have Lost River working for us.” 

“Then they went to work and stole a river 
instead of taking a mine,’ ’ said Sam. 

‘ ‘ They might just as well have taken the mine 
as to cut off our water,” observed Uncle Tod. 
“The mine can’t be worked to advantage with¬ 
out water, and we haven’t been able to locate 
any other prospect around here that’s anywhere 
near as good.” 

“No, and we never will,” declared Sam, with 
a return of his former gloom, that had van¬ 
ished for a time on the receipt of the good 
news. 

‘‘ But you say Lost River can be turned back, 
boys?” asked Uncle Tod. 

“Yes,” answered Rick, and he and Chot pro¬ 
ceeded to go more into details over the plan 


232 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

of the dam and the water gates. Rick made a 
drawing of it and showed his first sketch. 
When they had finished Uncle Tod said: 

44 Sam, we’ve got to turn that river! We 
just naturally have to!” 

“Sure thing!” assented Mr. Rockford. 
“Come on!” cried Rick with shining eyes. 
“We can make the place before night and open 
our gates and close theirs. Come on!” 

“Easy, boy, easy!” counseled his uncle. 
“How many men did you say were there in 
camp ? ’’ 

“Oh, about a dozen,” answered Rick. 
“Wouldn’t you say that many, Chot?” 

“I reckon so. Maybe ten or eleven, any¬ 
how. 9 9 

Rick looked at Uncle Tod expectantly. 
“And you expect that we two men and two 
boys can go up against a dozen hard-shelled 
members of the Lawson gang?” asked Mr. Bel¬ 
mont with a quizzical smile. 

“We got Ruddy, too,” asserted Chot. 

“Yes, son, but we don’t want Ruddy to get 
hurt and I don’t want you boys to go back east 
in bandages,” said Uncle Tod. “No, we’ll do 
this thing in regular order and with the law on 


TURNING LOST RIVER BACK 233 

our side. I know the law will be on my side 
for I have papers to show that I own the rights 
to Lost River.” 

“Well, let's get busy then,” suggested Sam. 
“Will you go down to Bitter Sweet Gulch and 
tell the sheriff and get a gang to come back and 
clean out this Lawson crowd!” 

“I will,” said Uncle Tod. “I'll take my pa¬ 
pers with me, see a lawyer, if there's one in 
town, and then we'll start Lost River back 
where she belongs.” 

“Want us to come and tell what we saw!” 
asked Rick. 

“It might be a good plan,” agreed his uncle. 
“You could give first-hand evidence—both of 
you. We'll go right after dinner. You boys 
have been living on light rations and we'll have 
to feed you up a bit.'' 

Seldom had a meal tasted so good, Rick and 
Chot thought, as the one Sam set before them 
a little later, and then Uncle Tod got out the 
rickety old car that sometimes went and some¬ 
times didn't. This was one of the times it did, 
and he and the boys rattled to town in the 
flivver. 

Uncle Tod located a lawyer, to whom the case 


234 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


was explained, and the legal individual agreed 
that Uncle Tod had a right to Lost River if it 
could be turned back into the tunnel where it 
had flowed for many years. 

‘‘We’ll go before the judge and get an order 
for the sheriff to enforce your claim,” said Mr. 
Pitney, the lawyer. “We’ll have something, 
then, to back us up.” 

The proceedings before the judge were brief. 
Rick and Chot told what they had seen, Uncle 
Tod showed his papers and gave testimony. 
There was a signing of some documents, a visit 
to the office of the sheriff and a promise made 
that the following morning a posse of deputies, 
well armed, would be at the disposal of Uncle 
Tod to see that the orders of the court were 
carried out; the orders being that Lost River 
was to be turned back into its old channel. 

“Now we have everything legal and in ship¬ 
shape,” said Uncle Tod as he and the boys rat¬ 
tled back to camp. 

Sam eagerly awaited their arrival, anxious to 
hear the news, and when told that the deputies 
would arrive next morning, and would start for 
the dam, Mr. Rockford began cleaning his 
rusty gun. 


TURNING LOST RIVER BACK 235 

“Do you think thereT1 be a fight?” asked 
Rick. 

“I know it!” was the emphatic answer. 

“Come on, Chot,” whispered Rick. “We’ll 
clean our guns, too !’ 1 

The boys could hardly wait for morning to 
come, but it arrived strictly on schedule and 
almanac time, and soon after breakfast two 
flivvers loaded with deputy sheriffs rattled 
into camp. 

And now a big disappointment awaited the 
lads, for, after a conference between the chief 
deputy and Uncle Tod, the order was given: 

“You lads’ll have to stay in camp!” 

“Oh, Uncle Tod!” cried Rick. “We just got 
to go!” 

“We want to see the fight—and help!” sang 
out Chot. 

“Maybe you can’t find the place without us,” 
added Rick, hopefully. 

‘ 6 Oh, I reckon we can, ’ ’ drawled the chief dep¬ 
uty, Matt Mason by name. “I know where 
it is—it’s the only location around here where 
they could turn the stream the way you say 
they have. I’d like to let you boys come along, 
but it’s too dangerous.” 


236 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


But Chot and Rick looked so sad over the 
prospect of being left behind that finally, after 
a talk, it was decided they could ride in the 
flivver with Sam and Uncle Tod as close to the 
dam as was considered safe, and could then look 
on from a hidden vantage point, taking, how¬ 
ever, no part in the fight—in case there was 
one. 

“But if that Lawson gang gets the best of 
you, can ’t we jump in and help ? ’ ’ asked Rick. 

“Oh, yes, maybe/’ said Mr. Mason slowly, 
“but I don’t aim to have them get the best of 
me. I know that bunch! ’ ’ 

So the start was made. Owing to the use of 
autos, necessitating journey by a longer trail 
than the short one taken by the boys, it was 
afternoon when they reached the vicinity of 
the dam. The exact location of the water gates 
were described by Rick and Chot and then they, 
with Ruddy, were left in a secluded spot, while 
Uncle Tod, Sam and the deputy sheriffs went 
on cautiously to compel the Lawson gang to 
restore the rights they had taken away. 

“Crickets! I wish we were there!” sighed 
Chot. 

“So do I,” agreed Rick. “But Dad told me 


TURNING LOST RIVER BACK 


237 


that we were to do what Uncle Tod said.” 

“Oh, of course we got to do that,” assented 
Chot, trying to be cheerful over it. 

The sheriff’s men and Uncle Tod proceeded 
with all due caution until they reached the 
opening of the second tunnel, through which 
the water should have flowed. 

“There’s the dam,” announced Uncle Tod in 
a low voice to Mr. Mason, the two being in the 
lead. 

“I see it, and the gates, too. Pretty slick 
piece of work. But I don’t see any of the 
gang. ’ ’ 

“Nor I!” said Uncle Tod. 

They remained quiet, taking observations. 
From the camp came not a sound, nor was 
there any sight of the Lawson crowd. 

“They may have heard we were coming and 
be hiding,” said Mason. 

“Trying to ambush us,” agreed Uncle Tod. 

“We’d better be careful. They’re desperate 
men. ’ ’ 

But Mason and his deputies were cunning 
men, as well as brave, and by scouting around, 
and by tricks designed to draw the fire of any 
hidden foe, should there prove to be one, they 


238 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


soon established that the camp was deserted. 

“They’ve vamoosed!” exclaimed Sam. 
** They’ve quit and we can turn the river back. ’ ’ 

“It does look so,” agreed Mason. “But 
don’t be in too much of a rush. Go slow! ’ ’ 

It was good advice, and was followed. But 
after another wait and a further cautious 
scouting around, it was definitely established 
that not a man was left in camp, though their 
possessions, scattered about, showed they had 
not long been away, and also indicated that 
they had departed in a hurry. 

“They heard we were coming and scooted,” 
said Sam exultantly. 

“Looks so,” agreed Uncle Tod. “Well, now 
let’s turn back our river where it belongs.” 

The mechanism of the water gates was easy to 
understand, and no trouble was experienced in 
working it. To Uncle Tod fell the honor of 
closing the first gate that shut off the water 
from the Lawson flume. 

The stream began to back up behind the dam 
as other gates were closed. 

“Better open the second gates now,” sug¬ 
gested Sam. 

The levers were depressed and the gates, 


TURNING LOST RIVER BACK 


239 


made of heavy planks, slowly came up. Un¬ 
der them rushed the water, hissing and foam¬ 
ing. 

‘‘Hurray!” cried Uncle Tod, as the stream 
shot into the tunnel whence it had been diverted. 
“Lost River is back again!” 

“Good work!” commented Mason. He and 
his men helped in raising the other gates that 
had been closed for several weeks. 

And as Lost River was turned back, there 
came a sudden hail from across the little gully 
into which the stream had been diverted. A 
hail full of meaning it was, for a voice said: 

4 i Hands up, you fellows! What do you mean 
coming in here on my mine!” 

The men looked up to see, confronting them, 
a menacing figure of a man armed with a pow¬ 
erful rifle. 

“Deck Lawson!” murmured Uncle Tod. 

“Just our luck!” complained Sam gloomily. 


CHAPTER XXV 


THE RUDDY MINE 

N ONE of the deputies—not even Uncle Tod 
nor his partner—seemed surprised at be¬ 
holding the leader of the Lawson gang. Per¬ 
haps they expected him. And it needed but a 
second glance to show that in the rear of Law- 
son were several other men, all armed with 
rifles. Still this did not ruffle Chief Deputy 
Sheriff Mason. 

**Hello, Deck,” he greeted the outlaw—for 
such he was. “Hello!” 

“I don’t say hello to anybody I may have to 
shoot!” was the sneering reply. 

ii Shoot? What for?” asked Mason, and he 
made no move toward a gun. In fact all of 
Uncle Tod’s party were now unarmed, having 
laid down their weapons to work the water 
gates. “Why shoot?” asked the chief deputy, 
smiling. 

“ ’Cause you’re here where you have no right 

to be, and ’cause you have shut otf my water 

240 


THE RUDDY MINE 


241 


rights!’ ’ declared Deck Lawson boldly. 44 That 
is why I’ll shoot!” 

“Your water rights! That’s pretty good!” 
chuckled Mason. 4 4 Why, you took water from 
Mr. Belmont! You changed the course of Lost 
River; didn’t you?” 

44 I had a right to!” insisted Deck menac¬ 
ingly. 

44 Well, the court doesn’t think so,” asserted 
the deputy. 44 I have a paper here—” 

He stepped forward, but Deck, with a quick 
motion, brought up his rifle and cried: 

44 Hands up! I said that before! Now do 
it!” 

44 Well, before I do any elevating,” said Ma¬ 
son calmly, 44 s’pose you just turn around and 
take a look behind you. Look around, Deck!” 

44 You must think I’m foolish!” laughed the 
other. But a moment later one of his own 
men, who had obeyed the suggestion of the dep¬ 
uty cried: 

44 It’s all up, Deck, they have us covered!” 

And it was so. Knowing the character of 
the men he had to deal with, Deputy Mason had 
taken no chances. When the water gates were 
being lowered and raised he had sent some of 


242 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


his men off in the bushes by a roundabout trail, 
for he suspected that the Lawson crowd would 
return. And when they did return, and seemed 
to have Uncle Tod and his friends at their 
mercy, the men Mason had placed in ambush 
circled around and executed a rear and flank 
movement on the enemy. The Lawson gang 
was completely under cover of a number of 
rifles held by steady hands. 

“All right—you win!” exclaimed Deck Law- 
son with an uneasy laugh. “But I have a 
right to Lost River.” 

“What’s the use of talking foolish!” de¬ 
manded Mason. “l r ou know me and I know 
you. Give up your guns and go away peace¬ 
ably. If you want to fight the courts will give 
you your rights the same as they would anyone 
else. But if you want to start a fight here— 
well, I’m ready for you, that’s all.” 

“All right—you win,” said Deck again, with 
a bitter laugh. 1 ‘ But I ’ll have my rights! ’ ’ 

“You’re entitled to them, but not to the rights 
of other people,” said the deputy. “If you go 
away quietly there’ll be no further trouble 
from me—but I warn you I’ve got plenty of 
men. Y"ou only see half of ’em. Look!” 



THE RUDDY MINE 


243 


He clew a whistle and from another part of 
the woods there suddenly appeared ten more 
deputies. 

“ Where'd they come from?” asked Uncle 
Tod, in surprise. 

“Oh, just my reserve force,” laughed Ma¬ 
son. “I left word for them to follow us this 
morning. I thought we might need them, but 
I guess we won't. How about it, Deck?” 

“Oh, I know when I've had enough,” was 
the sullen answer. “But I'll fight you in 
court!” he threatened Uncle Tod. 

“Maybe he'll win out against us after all,” 
whispered Sam, taking his usual gloomy view. 

“Let him try,” chuckled Uncle Tod. “Any¬ 
how I've got my Lost River back. Or I hope 
I have,” he added. “Do you reckon it's run¬ 
ning down at my mine?” he asked Mason. 

“Well, you'll soon see, for there's no need of 
staying here. Deck and his crowd are going, 
and I don't believe they'll come back,'.' he 
added with a chuckle. 

This proved to be the case. The outlaw—for 
he was so reckless and indifferent to the rights 
of others as to be called that—knew when he 
was beaten, and his men knew it, too. He 


244 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


talked big about going to law, but Uncle Tod 
was sure of his own claim. 

“Well,” remarked Sam, when the excitement 
was over, without a shot having been fired, 
“this turned out better’n I thought it would. 
I ’ll say that. ’’ 

“And it’s a good deal for you to say,” 
chuckled Uncle Tod. “But I’m anxious to get 
back to the mine and see if the water’s run¬ 
ning. And those boys! What about ’em? 
Rick and Chot! Think maybe Deck Lawson 
and his crowd might have gone where we left 
’em ? ” he asked Mason anxiously. ‘ ‘ If they did 
—the boys—” 

“ No, I think not. But you can bring ’em here 
now. They’ll want to see the water running 
where it belongs—and it was their smartness 
that brought this about. ’ ’ 

A deputy summoned the boys and their dog 
from where they had been left some distance 
away. 

“Is it all over?” asked Chot when the mes¬ 
senger reached them. 

“All over—yes.” 

‘ ‘ Many—er—now—many killed ? ’ ’ asked 
Rick, hesitating a bit over the words. 


THE RUDDY MINE 


245 


“Nary a one!” was the laughing answer. 
“Wasn’t a single shot fired.” 

“Oh, shucks!” sighed Ohot. 

‘ 4 Doesn’t seem a bit like out west,’ 9 lamented 
Rick, mournfully. 

“Well, it’s better the way it was,” said the 
deputy. “Shooting isn’t healthy exercise,” 
and, rather unwillingly, the boys agreed with 
him. Still, they would have liked the excite¬ 
ment, they thought. 

“Crickety! The water’s running in the old 
tunnel!” cried Rick, as he and his chum and 
dog reached the former Lawson camp, and 
noted the change in the control gates. 

“Yes, Rick and Chot, thanks to you, the wa¬ 
ter’s running where it used to,” said Uncle Tod. 
“And it’s down at our mine by this time— 
at least so we hope, ’ ’ he added, fearful of being 
too sanguine. 

The boys were told the story of the attended 
ambush by the Lawson crowd, and the counter¬ 
ambush staged by the special deputy. Then, 
leaving some men on guard, lest Lawson try 
to sneak back and again divert the water, the 
remainder of the posse began the journey to 
Uncle Tod’s camp. 



246 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


It was accomplished in better time than going, 
for the trail was down hill, and, just as the sun 
was sinking out of sight, the place was reached. 
Mr. Belmont gave one look in the direction of 
the flume, so long out of use, and cried: 

“She’s running all right! She’s running, 
Sam! Lost River has come back.’ ’ 

“ Well, I’m mighty glad of it,” said the part¬ 
ner. “If it will only stay here now until we 
can wash out some pay dirt—” 

“Oh, homed toads!” laughed Uncle Tod. 
“It’s a wonder you aren’t afraid the world will 
come to an end to-night.” 

“Well, it might,” conceded Sam, mildly, 
amid the laughter of the others. 

But nothing like that happened, nor did Lost 
River again disappear. It remained flowing 
through the tunnel as before, and was once 
more in its own channel. 

There were further court proceedings, but 
these only confirmed Uncle Tod in his right to 
the water and the Lawson gang seemed to have 
finished for good, making no legal fight as had 
been threatened, though Sam was always wor¬ 
rying lest they come back and again divert the 
stream. 


THE RUDDY MINE 


247 


Rick and Ruddy, with Chot, now settled down 
to an enjoyment of the time left to them in the 
west, for they would have to start back east in 
September, when school began. 

One evening about sunset, when “grub” was 
ready to be served, a man came up walking into 
camp. Rick and Chot looked up as his 
shadow fell in front of the shack, and Ruddy 
growled. 

The man—a stranger to the boys—held up 
his hand, palm out, in a curious fashion, and 
tossed a green branch toward them. 

“What in the—” began Rick, but just then 
Uncle Tod came out, took one look at the new¬ 
comer, and cried: 

4 4 Jake Teeter! And up to his old tricks, too! 
Ha! Ha! He chucked you a laurel branch, 
boys, to show he was peaceable. Well, well, 
if it isn’t Jake! Say, got any more marked 
bullets on you!” he asked, laughing heartily. 

44 Um!” grunted Jake, as an Indian might 
have done. 44 All right?” he asked, question- 
ingly. 

44 Meaning us and the camp? Yes,” an¬ 
swered Uncle Tod. 44 Your mysterious warning 
came in time, and we cleaned out the Lawson 



248 RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 

gang. Here, meet Rick, Chot and Ruddy, ’ ’ and 
he presented the boys and the dog. 4 4 Sam, 
here’s Jake!” called Uncle Tod. 

Sam came out of the cook tent. Though he 
and Jake had not seen each other in nearly two 
months they merely nodded silently, and Jake 
held np his hand, palm out, in peaceful Indian 
greeting. 

44 Isn’t he the limit?” whispered Uncle Tod to 
the boys, and they agreed that he was. 

Jake was made welcome, and he chuckled as 
he heard what a stir his bullet message had 
caused in quiet Belemere. As Uncle Tod had 
said, this queer character just reveled in mys¬ 
terious actions, for, a little later, Rick saw Jake 
trying to coax Ruddy into the bushes. 

“What’s the matter?” asked the lad. “Is 
there something there?” 

Jake silently shook his head, and, half sur¬ 
reptitiously, showed Rick a bone he had for the 
dog. 

“Well, if he isn’t the very cheese!” chuckled 
Chot, later, when his chum told him about it. 
‘ 4 Can’t even give a dog a bone without making 
a secret of it!” 

A little later, after supper, Uncle Tod no- 


THE RUDDY MINE 


249 


ticed that one of Jake’s thumbs was sprained. 

“How’d that happen?” asked Mr. Belmont. 

“Fight—Zeek Took,” was the answer, and 
partly in sign language, using as few words as 
possible, Jake related how, on his way to Uncle 
Tod’s camp, he had encountered the sneaking 
Zeek. Jake had heard from friends on his way 
out, of the outcome in the fight to restore Lost 
River, and knew Zeek to be a spy in the pay of 
the Lawson gang. Jake taxed Zeek with try¬ 
ing to learn things about Uncle Tod’s camp, to 
report to the Lawsons (as afterward proved to 
be the case) and there was a fight between the 
two. 

“Well, you got a sprained thumb out of it,” 
commented Uncle Tod. “I reckon that maybe 
Zeek—” 

“You should see him!” was all Jake would 
say. After this Zeek was not heard from in 
that locality. 

In spite of his odd ways Jake was welcomed 
at camp, and began working at getting out the 
gold and other metals. It was he who discov¬ 
ered the secret of the weird noises heard by the 
boys in the tunnel. Once, when the water was 
shut off from Uncle Tod’s camp, to enable some 


250 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


improvements to be made at the flume., Rick 
and Chot undertook to show Jake through the 
tunnel they had explored. 

While in it they heard the same disconcert¬ 
ing noises, and could not determine what made 
them until Jake suggested that they sounded 
like the voices of men, magnified, or amplified, 
as if by an echo. 

And this proved to be the case. For, emerg¬ 
ing from the tunnel, the boys found Uncle Tod 
and some men strengthening the water gates, 
since it was decided to leave the dam in place 
to better control the river. And it was the 
voices of the men, filtering in through the tun¬ 
nel, and being amplified in the various crevices 
and chasms that caused the weird groans, howls 
and shrieks. 

The boys tried it for themselves, being able, 
by making strange noises such as only boys 
know how to produce, to cause a veritable bed¬ 
lam of sound in the tunnel. 

‘ 4 And it was the Lawson gang, talking and 
laughing just outside the tunnel mouth, that we 
heard, ’ ’ said Rick. 

“It was,” agreed Chot. 

Thus all the mysteries of Lost River were 


THE RUDDY MINE 


251 


cleared up. Rick, however, was wrong in one 
theory. The rocks the Lawson gang used to 
hide the opening of the second tunnel did not 
come from the tunnel itself, but from the higher 
part of the mountain outside, being rolled down 
into place. 

“Well, now that it’s all over we can work in 
peace, ’’ said Uncle Tod, ‘ ‘ and make up for lost 
time.” 

Uncle Tod and Sam were kept busy, with 
their helpers, in washing out pay dirt and they 
uncovered a rich streak, now that they had the 
much-needed water. 

“Well, boys,” said Uncle Tod to the chums 
and their dog one day, “if you haven’t any¬ 
thing special to do suppose you come with me. ’ ’ 

“Where to?” asked Rick. 

“Over to the old Lawson camp. There’s 
something I want to see about. ’ ’ 

i ‘ Is the gang coming back ? ’ ’ asked Chot. 4 4 If 
they are we’d better get our guns and—” 

“You won’t need any guns!” laughed Uncle 
Tod. 

In the rattling flivver they journeyed to the 
place where Rick and Chot had discovered the 
hidden dam and water gates. As they reached 


252 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


the place the boys saw some men working over 
a flume box. 

“I thought you said the Lawson crowd hadn’t 
come back,” remarked Rick apprehensively. 

“They haven’t,” answered his uncle. 

‘ ‘ But there are men washing dirt in the flume 
box, and they’re using some of Lost River 
water. They have one of the gates open.” 

“That’s all right—they’re my men,” said 
Uncle Tod. “That’s what I came to see about 
—if they were washing out any color.” 

4 ‘ Rick—look! ’’ suddenly exclaimed Chot. 

He pointed to a board sign near the flume 
box. It read: 

THE RUDDY MINE 


PROPRIETORS 

T. Belmont 
S. Rockford 
Rick, Ruddy and Chot 

“Is that true, Uncle Tod!” asked Rick, 
hardly able to believe it. 

“Of course it is. I bought this mine from 
the real owners, whose claim the Lawson crowd 



THE RUDDY MINE 


253 


tried to jump. And I reckon I couldn’t do any¬ 
more than name the mine after Ruddy. I 
thought you’d rather have it that way than 
named after either of you boys.” 

“Sure!” cried Rick and Chot. “Sure!” 

“Then the Ruddy Mine it is!” chuckled 
Uncle Tod, “and I think the dog brought us 
good luck, for both claims are panning out well. 
Boys, it’s a good thing you came west.” 

“I believe it is!” declared Chot. 

“Whoopee, Ruddy! You never thought 
when you got swept overboard off that schooner 
into the sea that you’d ever have a gold mine 
named after you; did you, old dog! ” cried Rick. 
He leaped forward to throw his arms around 
his dog, but he slipped and down a gentle 
pine-needle-covered hill Rick rolled, he and 
Ruddy together, the dog barking madly and 
joyously while Chot and Uncle Tod shook with 
laughter. 

“Well, we sure have had a bunch of jolly ad¬ 
ventures!” declared Rick, when he had untan¬ 
gled himself from Ruddy and walked up the 
hill. 

“We sure have!” agreed Chot. “I wonder 
if we ’ll have any more ? ’ ’ 


254 


RICK AND RUDDY OUT WEST 


“Not this season, I hope,” said Uncle Tod. 
“I had letters from yonr folks the other day 
asking when you were coming home.” 

“Don’t mention it!” begged Rick. 

44 Let’s forget it! ” cried Chot. 4 4 Oh, boy, but 
it’s great out here!” 

I might say that Rick and Ruddy did have 
more adventures, and those of you who care to 
follow the career of a boy and his dog may do 
so in the next volume, to be called: 4 4 Rick and 

Ruddy on the Trail.” 

4 4 Well, boys, everything seems to be coming 
along all right,” remarked Uncle Tod, when 
he had looked to the mining operations being 
conducted by men he had engaged. 

44 You’ve got two mines instead of one,” said 
Chot. 

44 Oh, I only own part of this one,” said Mr. 
Belmont. 4 4 And, Rick, I want you to see that 
Ruddy gets his dividends in the shape of 
bones!” 

4 4 1 ’ll see to it,” promised Rick with a laugh. 

And then, in the pleasant evening glow, they 
rode back to the main camp. 


THE END 



























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